Remembering Danny O’Donnell

 

A Boy’s Curiosity Leads to His Death

On October 23rd, 1984, 10-year-old Daniel (Danny) O’Donnell left his family home around 6:00pm to see the fish that 16-year-old acquaintance Jeffrey Deel had caught earlier that day. He rode his sister’s bike to the beach where Deel had been fishing and drinking beer with a friend earlier in the day. Danny’s family would never have guessed that they would never see Danny again. His beaten and strangled body would be found face down in 2 inches of Lake Erie water only an hour later.

Teenage Tales

Jeffrey Deel was a fifth year Boy Scout who had gone to the beach with his friend on October 23rd, 1984, and the two drank a six-pack of beer while fishing. Deel had also stolen two cans of spray-on hair coloring from a local pharmacy, and the boys spent time at the beach spray painting obscenities on a wall. Around 5:10pm, Deel’s friend left him at the beach and traveled home. Deel then packed his fishing gear and rode his bike in the direction of his own home.

On the way there, Deel rode past Danny O’Donnell’s house, where he claimed to see Danny and two of his sisters outside carving pumpkins together. Danny was friends with Deel’s younger brother, and Danny asked Deel if he had caught any fish while he was out. Deel stated, “yes, a sheepshead.”

According to Deel, he traveled straight from the O’Donnell home to a convenience store to buy a sandwich, and then went to a laundromat across the street to eat his food and play pinball. He claimed that this was around 6:22pm that evening. He said that he went home shortly afterward, arriving close to 7pm. It was close to an hour after he arrived home that police called at the Deel household to ask about Deel’s involvement with Danny’s death.

Shocking Courtroom Confessions

After talking to police on two separate occasions, Jeffrey Deel admitted to the crime and was arrested on October 26th and charged with Danny’s murder. It was not long after his arrest that the Madison Township Police Department filed a complaint against him. The same day, the prosecution filed a court motion to consider Deel an adult for his crimes, as he was not amenable to rehabilitation at the juvenile institution where he was being held. The juvenile court agreed and ordered Deel’s case transferred to the Court of Common Pleas to be tried as an adult.

During his trial, it was revealed that Deel had screamed, “Yes I did it!” at former chief deputy sheriff Richard Amiott during an interrogation session. When asked for further details, Deel said, “You tell me” and began to cry before questioning ceased 5 minutes later. When Deel was asked about this exchange during his trial, he said, “I got sick and tired of him asking the same question, so I got angry and said I did it,” claiming that he thought it was the only way to end the interrogation and that he “didn’t mean it.”

There were multiple eyewitnesses called to the stand in Deel’s trial that corroborated his presence at the O’Donnell household on the day that Danny was killed. Some of the witnesses saw Danny riding away from his home with Deel, and one even saw Deel at the retaining wall with Danny. Danny’s father Charles and multiple neighbors were able to identify the clothing Deel wore on that day, including his blue jacket, an orange knapsack, and high waders for fishing.

Courtroom Evidence

Sergeant James Dooley was the first officer on the scene where two people on a walk had discovered Danny’s body. Dooley testified that he jumped down from a five-foot high retaining wall down to where he found Danny’s bicycle in a “puddle” of blood. He also found a wooden board with more blood under it.

Dooley also noticed an eleven-foot arc in the lake sand from the puddle of blood to the lake where Danny’s body was discovered, which officers determined was a “drag path.” There were also spatters of dried blood along the path. Two days later, criminalist Barbara Caraballo found blood spots on the retaining wall that Dooley had to descend down from to find Danny’s bike.

Dr. J.M. Edelstein performed Danny’s autopsy and found that the front half of his skull was completely shattered, his face was contused, and his neck had bruises, scratches, and compression marks that indicated strangulation. His lungs also had multiple pinpoint hemorrhages. Dr. Edelstein testified that Danny was killed as a result of both the strangulation and the blunt impacts to his head and face. However, he was unable to determine which injury occurred first. He did note that Danny’s death was not a result of drowning, despite the fact that his body was found in Lake Erie.

Criminalist Caraballo testified that the blood she found around the bike, on the wooden board, and on the retaining wall matched Danny’s Type-O blood. She also found Danny’s blood on the orange knapsack that police recovered from the Deel household. The blood patterning dispersed on the left strap indicated it was the result of a blow, and that it had dripped from another item onto the right strap. Caraballo was unable to find any more blood on the clothing that police collected from the Deel home, as Jeffrey Deel admitted to washing his shoes, waders, and all other pieces of clothing after returning home that night.

A Life Sentence and Poor Rehabilitation

Deel’s trial lasted one week. Based on the evidence, a jury of six men and six women found Deel guilty of Danny’s murder. Judge Paul H. Mitrovich sentenced Deel to fifteen years to life in prison.

In 2010, parole board records state that Deel had yet to take a victim’s awareness class, and no records since that time indicate that this has changed. He has completed very little other institutional programming, none of which has been in an attempt to reduce his likelihood to reoffend in the future.

After 28 years, Deel had begun to admit to his crimes, but offered little insight as to why he committed such a heinous act. The 2013 parole board decision states, “While the inmate is beginning to demonstrate greater remorse and empathy in relation to the crime, the inmate continues to demonstrate limited insight into why he committed it.”

In 2016, while Deel was forthcoming about his crimes, the Ohio Parole Board indicated that there was substantial reason to believe that Deel’s release would “create undue risk to public safety” or would “not further the interest of justice.”