Mammone III Pleads Not Guilty to Killing his Children, Ex-Mother-In-Law

CANTON — James Mammone III appeared before a judge Friday at the Stark County Jail and denied guilt to three counts of aggravated murder with death-penalty specifications and other crimes.

The hearing was Mammone’s first chance to enter a plea to charges that he killed his two children and his ex-mother-in-law on June 8, and tried to break into his ex-wife’s home.

“The charges don’t get any more serious than they are in this case,” Common Pleas Judge John G. Haas told Mammone before reading the seven-count indictment aloud.

If convicted of any of the aggravated murder charges with an accompanying death-penalty specification, Mammone could be sentenced to death. Other options would be life in prison without parole, life in prison with parole eligibility after 30 years and life in prison with parole eligibility after 25 years.

Police have said he confessed to the slayings, saying he was trying to punish his ex-wife, Marcia Mammone, following their recent divorce.

Stark County Public Defender Tammi Johnson and defense attorney Derek Lowry have been appointed to represent James Mammone III.

They declined to comment on the case, as did Assistant Stark County Prosecutor Chryssa Hartnett.

Haas set a tentative January trial date.

The judge held off on imposing a gag order, but said he is sensitive to how publicity about the case might effect potential jurors.

“The less said, the better,” he told the attorneys.

Haas also asked Mammone how he was being treated in jail and if he had any concerns.

Mammone said his only problem is getting food that fits his strict vegetarian diet.

Neither Mammone’s relatives, nor the family of his ex-wife, attended the hearing.

George Urban, spokesman for Marcia Mammone and her father, James Eakin, said they are still coping with the loss and didn’t want to make the hearing a public spectacle.

Prosecutors have said they believe James Mammone III stabbed to death his children, 5-year-old Macy Mammone and 3-year-old James Mammone IV, sometime before fatally shooting his former mother-in-law, 57-year-old Margaret J. Eakin.

Reached at her home, the defendant’s mother, Gilise Mammone, said she wanted to be at the hearing, but had been told it wasn’t open to the public, although it was.

“He’s still my son, and I love him,” she said.

In her first public comments since her son’s arrest, an emotional Gilise Mammone said her heart is broken.

“I’m just absolutely crushed. I lost my grandkids, my only grandkids, and my son, my only child,” she said.

With a trial pending, she wouldn’t discuss details about her son, his marriage and divorce, or the allegations against him, but said the side of him accused of these crimes, “I never saw, I never knew.”

“He always did so well with the kids,” she said. “I just don’t understand. I just don’t understand.”

[previous articles on Mammone]