Criminal Law
Leon J. Daidone Retires By Hon. Mary E. Montgomery Montgomery Cty Common Pleas mary.montgomery@montcourt.oh.gov | 937.225.4055
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fter forty years of dedicated public service, Leon J. Daidone, has finally made the decision to retire. For those of you who know him well, this came as a surprise. Leon is one of the the hardest working people I know and although there has been the occasional water cooler talk about when, it’s always been tossed aside as rumor. Leon grew up in New Jersey and graduated from Montclair State College in 1976. He went on to graduate from Ohio Northern College of Law in 1979, where he was a member of Law Review, receiving the Editor’s Award for Outstanding Law Review Member. After graduation Leon was admitted to the practice of law in both Ohio and New Jersey. From 1979 to 1980, he was a judicial clerk for the Honorable Judge William Marchese of the Superior Court in Paterson, New Jersey. He then briefly worked for the Law Offices of Robert J. Casulli in Cranford, New Jersey until 1981. Leon met his wife Connie while at Ohio Northern and the decision was made
to move to Dayton after they were married. Then, from 1981 until February 2021, he worked as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office where he crafted and honed his skills as one of Dayton’s very best trial lawyers. Leon has served many roles during his forty year tenure at the Prosecutor’s Office.
State of Ohio vs. Theodore Sink
Leon said, “This was one of the most cold-blooded, calculating individuals I have ever prosecuted.” Sink struck his wife in the head multiple times with a hammer, strangled her to death with a rope, put her in a fifty-five gallon drum, took her to the Dayton Newspaper Building, a location both Sink and his wife worked, and buried her in dirt and concrete. Sink was convicted of murder in 1989 and sentenced to prison, where he later died.
State of Ohio v. Lamar Lenoir
This was a “cold case” that occurred in February 1994. Lenoir was indicted in December 2005 and found guilty in 2007. The detective assigned to the case wrote, “I know murder cases are challenging just in their inherent nature, however, this case provided more obstacles than any case I have been associated with. Mr. Daidone met these challenges and obstacles head-on with unrelenting preparation and remarkable resolve.”
State of Ohio v. Duane Allen Short
Duane Short shot and killed his estranged wife and the mother of his three children, Rhonda Short, and her friend Donnie Sweeney,
He started in the Appellate Division and then to a criminal docket. He was head of the Career Criminal Unit, later assigned to the Ohio Organized Crime Task Force and then to the Violent Crimes Bureau where he spent fourteen years prosecuting violent homicides. Starting in 2007, he served as the Chief of the Criminal Division, supervising and mentoring dozens of criminal docket attorneys. Outside of his “day job”, he taught Criminal Justice at Sinclair for twenty-four years, was an instructor at the Dayton Police Academy, and a frequent lecturer for the National District Attorney’s Association. In 2008, Leon was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and shortly thereafter received the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association’s Outstanding Assistant Prosecutor of the Year award in 2011. Whittling down the list of Leon’s most notable trials over the years was difficult due to the sheer number of cases he has tried. Here, however, are a few:
after Rhonda attempted to leave the Short family following years of abuse. All three of their young children had to testify at trial. The trial itself was very emotional and lasted three weeks. The defendant was convicted of multiple counts of Aggravated Murder, as well as death penalty specifications, and was sentenced to death in May of 2006. After the trial and sentencing, the Court and counsel for both sides had the opportunity to meet with the jury. Both the Judge and the jury were extremely complimentary of Leon. One juror said that he hoped never to see Mr. Daidone in the courtroom “on the other side.”
State of Ohio v. Candace Hargrove and James Russell
On September 1, 2002, James Russell shot and killed Phillip Troutwine, a 57 year old Federal Aviation Administration employee. Mr. Troutwine had gone to the Dayton apartment Russell shared with his girlfriend and co-defendant, Candace Hargrove, in order to meet Hargrove for paid sex after having met her on a telephone dating service. Once Troutwine arrived, Russell jumped out of a hiding spot and shot Troutwine in the head, fatally wounding him. Russell wrapped Troutwine’s body in a tarp, dragged him down the stairs, and dumped him
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Dayton Bar Briefs February 2021
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