A Moratorium on Justice
By Robert A. Waters
Sierah Joughin, 20, had known mostly good things in her life. That summer, she lived with her parents before heading back to the University of Toledo for her senior year. She was pretty, with naturally blonde hair and a personality that drew people to her. On the afternoon of July 19, 2016, near Metamora, Ohio, Sierah pedaled her bicycle down a rural road through mazes of seven-foot high corn rows. She'd been visiting her boyfriend, whom she'd known since grade school, and was headed home.
Her parents lived six miles from Josh Kolasinski's home. When she left, he cranked up his motorcycle and rode alongside her to make sure she got home safely. The Supreme Court of Ohio reported that "Kolasinski recorded two videos of Joughin on her bike during the ride. She was wearing sunglasses, athletic shoes, shorts, a tank top, and she sat on a checkered dishtowel draped over her bike seat." About half-way to Sierah's home, the lovers stopped for a moment and kissed. Then Sierah insisted that Kolasinski turn back. She said she'd call when she made it to her parents' residence.
That call never came.
James Worley (pictured), 57, had spent all day viewing porn, including many films portraying women being kidnapped and sexually assaulted. He also loved bondage movies and anything showing sexual violence. That afternoon, he climbed on his motorcycle and drove the same route as Sierah. As he passed the pretty cyclist riding alone, Worley became overwhelmed with the urge to play out his fantasies in living color. He stopped his motorcycle less than a mile from the Joughin residence and waited.
Worley could barely wait for nightfall. As soon as darkness fell, he drove his pickup truck back to where he'd left Sierah. She was barely conscious as he loaded her into the cargo bed. In his panic to flee, Worley dropped several items. These were located by searchers. Included were a box of motorcycle fuses, a pair of men's sunglasses, and an orange screwdriver, as well as the blood-soaked checkered dishtowel. In addition, he'd forgotten to pick up his motorcycle helmet. It lay by the side of the road until a farmer found it and turned it over to police.
It took Worley less than five minutes to drive back to his farm. Behind his house, he had a barn where he stored hay. In the barn, he'd hidden many secrets, including a plastic bin filled with ladies lingerie. Worley stripped the injured girl and dressed her in panties and a bra. (DNA on the panties matched that of Sierah.) Worley likely sexually assaulted her at the time, but covered the evidence by pouring bleach and other cleaning products on her body. Once he was sated, he killed her. An appeals court document states that Worley "bound her, and shoved a rubber dog toy into her mouth and tied it in place, causing her death by suffocation." He rammed it in so hard it broke one of her teeth.
Within hours after her disappearance, the Fulton County Sheriff's Office began a full-scale search. Early the next morning, a cop found Sierah's bike hidden among the corn.
Two days after her disappearance, searchers found Sierah's remains, buried in a separate area of the corn field. Court documents state that "Joughin's body was covered in dirt with her wrists handcuffed behind her back, her ankles bound together with duct tape, and her feet bound to her hands with a rope. She was lying on her stomach with her head turned to the side. A rubber cone-shaped dog toy, which was secured with a shoelace tied at the back of her head, had been used to gag her and there was straw in her hair." She also wore an adult diaper, similar to ones found in Worley's barn.
The items left by her abductor were collected and sent to the lab for testing. The motorcycle helmet had Sierah's DNA on it, as did several of the other items. Both Sierah and Worley's DNA were inside a rubber glove found near the murder scene.
Twenty years earlier, Worley had been convicted of a similar crime. Robin Gardner, 26, was riding her bicycle near Whitehouse, Ohio when a pickup truck knocked her into a ditch. Placing a screwdriver to her throat, he threatened to kill her if she didn't get in the truck. Robin, however, was able to escape. Worley only served two years in prison for that crime.
As the trial for Sierah's murder approached, there was no doubt as to Worley's guilt. He was convicted of aggravated murder and kidnapping, and sentenced to death. Over the years, all his appeals have been denied.
When his appeals are exhausted, will Sierah find justice? Ohio's Republican Governor Mike DeWine has placed a moratorium on executions in the state. Three killers, Quisi Brown, a cop-killer, Charles Lorraine, a double murderer, and Melvin Bonnell, currently sit on death row awaiting execution since their appeals have run out. One of DeWine's stated reasons for ditching capital punishment is that Ohio cannot "secure the drugs used in lethal injections." (It seems amazing that other states, such as Florida and Texas, can purchase those drugs and yet Ohio cannot.)
Ohio has an election for governor coming up next year and DeWine can't run again due to term limits. Since the majority of Ohioans favor the death penalty in certain instances, this might be a good campaign issue for a gubernatorial candidate to run on.
