LEROY CHARLEY, the man convicted of the aggravated homicide of a woman who was beaten, bitten, partially strangled and stabbed 20 times in the chest, recently was denied parole and remains incarcerated in Ohio’s Southeastern Correctional Institution.

The body of 42-year-old Sue Forbes, Charley’s victim, was found at noon May 25, 2003, in her bed in her home in Martins Ferry. According to a transcript from the 7th District Court of Appeals, her shirt had been raised in an exposing manner, and her zipper was down.

Court records state that Forbes was last seen at 12:30 a.m. that day outside her home with Charley. They had been dropped off by the victim’s cousin, who heard them arguing and observed that Charley had to assist the seemingly intoxicated Forbes to her house. Forbes had previously dated Charley and, when she broke off the relationship, he continued to pursue her.

Belmont County Prosecutor Kevin Flanagan was in private legal practice at the time of Forbes’ death. Frank Pierce was the prosecutor in 2003, but he was unseated by Chris Berhalter, now a common pleas court judge, who became prosecutor in January 2005.

Although Berhalter had no connection to the case, a firm he previously worked for was involved, creating a conflict for the entire prosecutor’s office. As a result, Flanagan was asked to serve as special prosecutor on the case, which was heard by a jury in the court of now-retired common pleas judge John Solovan.

Following his conviction, Charley was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. Now, 20 years later, Flanagan had the opportunity to weigh in on whether Charley should be granted parole at his first opportunity for release.

“Under parole board rules, we are permitted to submit any information that we want to help parole board reach its decision,” Flanagan said Monday. “Obviously, in this case we were completely against it.”

Flanagan cited the aggravated murder conviction as well as “the heinousness of the act itself” as reasons for opposing Charley’s release. He said his office was able to submit documents and appear at the parole board hearing, though the office could not provide input during the hearing. The board was able to ask Charley questions.

“After the hearing, the board unanimously believed Mr. Charley was not suitable for parole,” Flanagan said. “And the maximum they can continue the next hearing is for 10 years, so (Charley) is ineligible for parole until 2035.”

Flanagan pointed out that if Charley were convicted of the same crime today, the potential sentence has changed. He said Charley now could be sentenced to 20, 25 or 30 years to life or he could be sentenced to life without a possibility of parole.

“Leroy Charley will never get out after what he did to Sue Forbes,” Flanagan said. “He doesn’t deserve to get out. First, he was stalking her even though she tried to distance herself from him, and he refused to leave her alone. They were in a relationship beforehand. We presented evidence of his violence in a previous relationship, and a girl he was in a current relationship with (during the trial) said one night he admitted to her that he had done this.”

Flanagan noted that the bite mark expert employed by the defense was the same bite mark expert that worked for the prosecution in the Ted Bundy case, and Flanagan had to cross examine him. The prosecution’s bite mark expert worked out of the Allegheny (Pennsylvania) Coroner’s Office.

Flanagan said one bite mark of Forbes’ body was conclusively determined to have been made by Charley while the second one was inconclusive; however, the prosecution was able to prove that both bite marks contained Charley’s saliva.

On the night that she died, Forbes had visited two local bars with her cousin and Charley, despite her objections to his presence, court records indicate. Charley paid for drinks that he personally handed to his companions. Forbes’ cousin said that Forbes left her beer in a bathroom after saying that it tasted funny, and Charley confronted her about her missing drink. He later urged her and others to do shots at the bar, and after Forbes reportedly consumed one, she immediately appeared to become impaired. An autopsy revealed that Forbes’ blood alcohol content was 0.27% at the time of death and that her blood contained seven to eight times the maximum therapeutic dose of Flexeril, a muscle relaxant and pain reliever.

Court records state that until May 7, 2003, Charley lived with a woman who took Flexeril. She left him because of his relationship with the victim. When this woman returned on May 10 to pick up her belongings, she said, Charley instructed her to just give him two weeks longer and that “she would read about it in the paper and then he would be all hers in two weeks. Coincidentally, the victim was murdered two weeks later.”

Charley appealed his conviction, and the case went to the 7th District court in March 2007. That court concluded that the evidence in the case placed Charley at the scene and demonstrated his prior calculation and design to commit the crime, upholding his conviction and sentencing.