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CRIMINAL LAW Leon J. Daidone Retires
After 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.
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Leon has served many roles during his forty year tenure at the Prosecutor’s Office. 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:
Leon J. Daidone Retires
By Hon. Mary E. Montgomery Montgomery Cty Common Pleas mary.montgomery@montcourt.oh.gov | 937.225.4055
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, 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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into the trunk of a car. The body was not discovered for three weeks. At trial, the defendant claimed alibi and produced receipts, ticket stubs and family members to corroborate the alibi. The jury, however, rejected the defendant’s claims and found him guilty on all charges.
State of Ohio v. Christian Gabriel
Twenty-two years ago, on February 7, 1999, Christian Gabriel, along with Jan Franks and another individual, hit 10 year old Erica Baker with their van as Erica walked her dog near the Kettering Recreational Center. They buried her body in a location that, still today, remains unidentified. Erica’s disappearance resulted in an exhaustive search and years of unanswered questions as to what happened to her. With thousands of hours of document review, legal research, and both pre-indictment and pretrial work by Leon that spanned several years, the State was finally able to bring charges against Christian Gabriel after Jan Franks’ death. This case involved much-publicized litigation over Franks’ attorney’s refusal to testify before the Grand Jury concerning statements made by Jan Franks about the incident before Franks’ death following a waiver of the attorney-client privilege by Franks’ husband. The State prevailed on that issue in every reviewing court from the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court to the Ohio Supreme Court. The result was a grueling and emotional week-long jury trial that was aired both locally and nationally on several television networks. The discovery in the case exceeded 10,000 pages. Despite the defendant’s refusal to identify the location of Erica’s body and thus, the absence of the main piece of evidence, a jury convicted the defendant of Gross Abuse of a Corpse and Tampering with Evidence.
After trial on this case, Leon received a letter from the Warden of the Southeastern Correctional Institution where Gabriel had been imprisoned on another offense when the trial began. The Warden wrote, “I appreciate your dedication and dogged determination that it took to get to this point with this case. I especially appreciate the manner in which you made Erica your own cause. I sense you were totally immersed in this case and it went beyond being just another case to you… I am better person because of my exposure to you during this case. I think it is good for us to be exposed to true professionals fighting tooth and nail for the right things. Possibly there exists lesser professionals in some lesser place who may not have seen this case to the end that you did and I am so grateful that it landed in your world.”
Last, is the gruesome case of State of Ohio v. Larry James Gapen
To this day, the 911 call in this case is still one of the most haunting calls I’ve ever heard. On June 24, 2000, Gapen snuck into the home of his soon to be ex-wife, Martha Madewell, as she slept on the couch. He removed his pants and was in the process of binding her hands and feet when she awoke and managed to get away. Gapen was charged with Abduction and placed on Electronic Home Detention while awaiting trial. Three months later, he broke his electronic home detention, entered his ex-wife’s home as the family slept, and killed Martha, his thirteen year old step-daughter Jessica Young, and Martha’s boyfriend Nathan Marshall, by savagely and repeatedly striking them each with a wood maul. Gapen then fled the house with his eight and ten year old step children, but was arrested later that same morning. During the interview by the detective, Gapen admitted to the killings, claiming he’d “never felt better in his life.” Gapen was convicted of multiple charges, including Aggravated Murder and death penalty specifications. He was sentenced to death in June of 2001.
The list of Leon’s notable trials is quite long. This small sampling only touches the surface of the complex and serious cases he has tried throughout his distinguished career. His work ethic, dedication, compassion, and passion are truly exemplary.
Leon was not only an exceptional trial attorney, but he was an even greater mentor and friend to the assistant prosecutors with whom he worked. His patience was endless. His energy boundless. He’d often snap his fingers and with a wry grin say, “try to keep up!” His attention to detail was nothing short of pure perfection. While as an assistant prosecuting attorney (and perhaps even today) my writing was often more formal. Leon would often tell me to “Jersey it up a little!” He may have lived in Ohio for more than half his life, but “Jersey” never left him! He not only worked hard, he made himself available twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. And that was not lip service. Leon meant with all sincerity the thousands of times he told assistant prosecutors to call him day or night, “even at 2am,” if they needed anything. I cannot recall the number of times I spent on the phone with Leon working through an issue until the wee hours of the morning or working side by side on evenings and weekends and late into the night preparing for a trial. Leon had the experience and position such that he could have simply left his trial partner to do the grunt work, but he never did. Not once. Not ever. He always put in as much time, if not more. He never left any trial partner to pull his weight and theirs. There are hundreds of prosecutors spread across Montgomery County and beyond who thrived and excelled at their craft because of Leon. His trial and mentoring skills are simply unmatched.
Prosecutor Mat Heck worked with Leon for four decades. Their stories are legendary! Mat said of Leon, “Leon is a people person who knows the value of establishing relationships with co-workers and our criminal justice partners. As an accomplished trial lawyer, he best illustrates the importance of always being prepared and has trained countless assistant prosecutors to do the same. We will definitely miss Leon and his contributions to my office. I wish him and Connie the best in his retirement [and hope he uses this time to become a better fisherman!!].”
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