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BARRISTER OF THE MONTH: THE HONORABLE JEFFREY M. WELBAUM
The Honorable Jeffrey M. Welbaum Second District Court of Appeals
Judges ought to be more learned than witty, more reverend than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue.
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~ Francis Bacon, “Essay LVI: Of Judicature,” Essays (1625)
Judge Welbaum When Bacon wrote that essay in the early seventeenth century, he must have imagined self-govern& Wife Peg at Red Square, husband’s involvement in the crime. It was reportedly the hitman’s view that there was no reason for all three defendants to go to ment, an independent judiciary, and judges like Jeffrey Welbaum. Born in Troy, Ohio, Moscow prison, if one of them could skate. As was his duty, Judge Welbaum gave each witness Judge Welbaum graduated from Troy High statement to Swinehart as they became School in 1970. Four years later, he gradu- available. ated with a bachelor’s degree cum laude On the eve of trial, Judge Welbaum was from Defiance College. Onward he went to preparing his opening statement when a Ohio Northern University where he worked red-faced homicide detective informed him his way through the Pettit College of Law that his hitman star witness had demanded obtaining his juris doctor degree in 1977. to have sex with his wife, or he would not
From law school, Judge Welbaum began testify. Knowing that Judge Welbaum was his legal career in public service, first as a preoccupied with his trial preparation, the Miami County assistant prosecuting attor- detective tossed a mattress into the back of ney, then as a Miami County assistant public a Chevy van, drove the van to the rear jail defender, all while maintaining a private house door, and aided the belly-chained hitpractice in state and federal court with the man into the van. News of the rendezvous Troy law firm of Miller, Schlemmer and inspired revisions to Judge Welbaum’s openLuring. In 1985, Judge Welbaum reverted ing statement. Neither the rendezvous, nor from defending the accused to prosecuting the opening statement surprised Swinehart. them as the elected Miami County Pros- Rather, as Judge Welbaum recalls, Swineecuting Attorney, a ten-year career pursuit hart seemed oddly sympathetic. interspersed with periodic appointments The hitman testified to the basics. He as a special assistant United States attorney. After fifteen years as a shot and killed the victim. The middleman had indeed hired him. trial judge in the Miami County Court of Common Pleas, eight as Nevertheless, the hitman was a marvelous witness for the defense, its drug court jurist, Judge Welbaum stepped down from the bench agreeing to Swinehart’s every point, inference, or suggestion on to return, once again, to prosecuting as the Chief of Ohio Attorney cross-examination. Predictably, the husband was acquitted. Fittingly General Mike DeWine’s Criminal Justice Section. though, after serving his time on the reduced charge, it was reported
Over his many years as a prosecutor, Judge Welbaum tried dozens in the news that the hitman was shot repeatedly in the back and of cases, and prosecuted hundreds more. As with every seasoned trial killed in southeastern Ohio by an angry husband after a high-speed lawyer, a select few of those cases are cemented into Judge Welbaum’s car chase. memory. One such case was a death penalty murder-for-hire case In a 1988 case, a woman was seen running down a Piqua street in that Judge Welbaum tried as the newly-elected Miami County Pros- broad daylight with a man following close behind shooting her in the ecuting Attorney. back as she screamed for help. The victim fell on porch steps begging
The case involved a hitman and middleman both of whom pled to for the help of an elderly woman rocking in a chair. Looming behind reduced charges after agreeing to testify against a husband accused the victim was a male holding a revolver clicking on empty and of contracting for the murder of his wife during their divorce. The pointed at the victim’s back. The witness and the shooter made eye husband was represented by well-known defense attorney, the late contact. The elderly woman was about six feet from the suspect before Howard Swinehart. With at least tacit encouragement from Swine- he fled in the direction of the police station. She was the only witness hart, and with information fed to him by the hitman’s wife (who had able to identify the suspect from photo lineups. After shooting the visiting privileges with her husband in the jail), the hitman gave victim, the defendant ran directly to the police station and reported repeated and conflicting statements to law enforcement about the that he had witnessed the crime. continued on page 9
BARRISTER OF THE MONTH: The Honorable Jeffrey M. Welbaum continued from page 8
The elderly woman was understandably terrified to testify. She shook uncontrollably as Judge Wellbaum assisted her to the witness stand. Judge Welbaum stayed close to calm her nerves and narrow her focus. After her trembling testimony as to what she had witnessed, came the big moment to identify the murderer. Judge Welbaum stepped back, arms raised, and asked, “And is the man who you saw shoot that poor woman here in the courtroom today?” After a dramatic pause, she pointed to a man sitting in the last row by the door and said, “That’s him, back there!” After what seemed like an eternity, the elderly woman’s eyes fell upon the defendant; whereupon, she pointed and said, “No that’s him right there!” Then, she turned and pointed at Judge Welbaum and said, “You blocked my view!” The headline in the Troy Daily News the following day was “PROSECUTOR BLOCKS WITNESS’S VIEW.”
Reeling, Judge Welbaum asked Judge John Kistler to verify for the record that the witness had identified the defendant. In turn, defense attorney (and former Miami County Prosecuting Attorney), Craig Hallows, asked that the record show that she had first identified the man in the back row as the murderer. Judge Kistler asked the man in the last row to stand and recite his name. The man responded, “Do I have to answer that? I only came to watch my son testify.” Kistler insisted that the man state his name. The man said his name, then asked if he could join his son in the lobby. The judge agreed and Hallows smiled as the man bolted out the door.
After a recess, Judge Welbaum called his last witness, a woman washing dishes, who heard gunshots, then saw a man running toward the police station from her kitchen window. During her police interview, she could not identify the man from a photo array. Nevertheless, her mere observation of a man running toward the police station immediately after hearing gunshots was relevant and necessary evidence for the prosecution. After settling in on the witness stand, the woman looked around the courtroom. When she gazed upon the defendant, she proclaimed with certainty that he was the man she saw running. On cross-examination, Hallows whipped out the photo array, “Didn’t you tell the cops that you could not identify the man from this photo spread?” “Yes,” she said. “But, those photos are terrible, I am 100% sure that is the man.” Judge Welbaum sat down never more eager to attend church that Sunday.
More recently, Judge Welbaum joined the Second District Court of Appeals in February, 2013. He was reelected to a second six-year term that commenced on February 9, 2019. Recognizing his knowledge, skill and experience, the Ohio Supreme Court has pressed Judge Welbaum into service as a visiting judge on that court and as a member of the Court’s Commission on Technology and the Courts. Respected by his colleagues, Judge Welbaum has twice been elected Administrative and Presiding Judge in the Second District.
When not in or near the courtroom, Judge Welbaum enjoys scuba diving, fishing in the Florida Keys, bicycling, kayaking on local rivers, and riding his BMW motorcycle. His more memorable dives include exploration of the Caribsea, a Norfolk-bound Panamanian freighter submerged in 90 feet water, sunk with a cargo of manganese by a U-boat off the coast of Morehead City, North Carolina, on March 11, 1942. Adding to one’s diving pleasure, the Caribsea shipwreck is home to a school of 12-foot tiger sharks that enjoy getting up close and personal with divers.
Judge Welbaum lives in Troy with is wife, Peg. They enjoy traveling abroad, trips made easier by Peg’s fluency in French and Spanish. Their two adult sons followed in Mom’s footsteps by becoming fluent in Spanish and
Russian. Amidst journeys to Mexico, Europe, and Russia, was a trip to Pamplona, Spain, where Judge Welbaum and son, Andy, ran with the bulls. Thinking he might be killed during that run, the lead bull ran mercifully past Judge Welbaum, not over him.
More learned than witty, more reverend than plausible, and more advised than confident, Judge Welbaum’s integrity has distinguished him as a prosecutor, a trial judge, and as an appellate jurist. Once the President of the Miami County Bar Association, as a long term member of the Dayton, Ohio State and American Bar Associations, and as the recipient of numerous awards for charitable and public service, we add to those distinctions our recognition of him as Barrister of the Month.
