An Ohio man, charged in a 2015 house fire that killed a 10-year-old girl and her grandparents, jumped to his death off a courthouse balcony Monday before his murder trial was set to begin, officials said.
Robert Seman Jr. was being escorted to a holding cell by deputies after a brief hearing at the Mahoning County Courthouse in Youngstown when he committed suicide around 9:30 a.m., WKBN-TV reported.
“That was an evil, evil man,” a prosecutor said, according to the Youngstown Vindicator.
Surveillance video by the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office shows deputies walking alongside Seman, wearing a white dress shirt and beige pants before he jumped from the fourth-floor balcony.
Courthouse workers looked stunned as Seman remained motionless on the rotunda. He died minutes later.
The 48-year-old faced the death penalty if convicted in the deaths 10-year-old Corinne Gump, and her grandparents, 63-year-old William Schmidt and 61-year-old Judith Schmidt
Prosecutors say Seman set the house on fire because Gump was scheduled to testify against him in a rape case, the TV station reported.
Investigators determined Seman used gasoline to fuel the home. Burns were found on him after officials arrested him, prosecutors said.
Tom Zena, Seman’s attorney, told the station that his client’s suicide was unexpected and that he had maintained his innocence.
Seman’s trial was set to begin Tuesday in Portage County after his attorneys successfully argued that he couldn’t get a fair trial in Youngstown because of pretrial publicity.
Assistant Mahoning County Prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa told news outlets that Seman “knew the evidence against him.”
“Every witness we talked to in preparation for the case, they didn’t know why he wasn’t pleading guilty or asking for some sort of plea, so this is very telling,” Cantalamessa said.
Lisa Cappitti, Corinne’s stepmother, had mixed emotions when she learned Seman’s death.
“It’s sad,” she told the Youngstown Vindicator. “There’s no justice at all. We don’t know what to feel.”
