ELYRIA — The attorney for a Lorain man arrested on murder charges five years after the slaying of his ex-girlfriend asked a county judge to throw out the case Thursday.

Defense attorney Kenneth Ortner said prosecutors and police lack key evidence against his client, Rennell Malone, and that the case is so old that key witnesses have died and memories of the events of 2001 have faded.

Malone, 47, was charged in 2006 with beating and stabbing Diane Utsey-Henderson in her Amherst Drive home, where she was found dead June 15, 2001. Police found the 44-year-old woman’s body when her sister became concerned when no one answered the door.

The sister, Deloise Hopkins-Brantley, noticed a window ajar and that the contents of her sister’s purse had been scattered, according to police.

Assistant Lorain County Prosecutor Tony Cillo said during a hearing in front of county Common Pleas Judge Mark Betleski that the house had been ransacked to appear as if it had been burglarized, but numerous valuable items, including cash, were left there.

Ortner said after the hearing that police don’t have either the plate that police believe Utsey-Henderson was hit with or the knife that was used to kill her.

Police say Malone’s former Lorain County Jail cellmate, who told police that Malone confessed to him. Ortner said the former cellmate is a white member of the Aryan Brotherhood, while Malone is black.

Betleksi is reviewing Ortner’s request to have the murder and other charges against Malone dropped, and said he will make a decision before Malone’s bench trial begins. The trial is set for Tuesday.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

 

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