COLUMBUS — One of the most notorious inmates on Ohio's death row is now one legal step away from execution.

Coleman

        Alton Coleman, whose 1984 multistate crime spree included the deaths of Norwood resident Marlene Walters and Tonnie Storey of Over-the-Rhine, lost an appeal to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday. He has 90 days to file his last guaranteed appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court. If that appeal were to be rejected, an execution date will be set.

        “That would put him third in line to be executed, after Jay D. Scott and John Byrd,” said Joe Case, a spokesman for Attorney General Betty Montgomery.

        Mr. Coleman and Deborah Denise Brown went on a seven-week Midwest crime spree that began in May 1984 with the abduction and murder of a 9-year-old Wisconsin girl and ended eight murders later when the two were arrested in Illinois. The couple also committed seven rapes, three kidnappings and 14 armed robberies.

        Mr. Coleman also received the death penalty in Illinois and Indiana.

        At one time, it appeared Illinois might execute Mr. Coleman before Ohio because his death penalty appeals were closer to being exhausted in that state. But Illinois Gov. George Ryan halted all executions in January 2000 after 13 death row inmates were found innocent and released from prison.

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