Alexander Bailas

Marcia MacClellan's Story

Violent Tendencies

Alexander Bailas had a life that should have afforded him many options. His father, Dr. Nicholas Bailas, was a cardiovascular surgeon at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center. His mother, Dr. Maria Bailas, was the Director of the Residency Training Program at the Psychiatric Department of the Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital. She was also a Professor of Psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

Almost as soon as he could walk and talk, Bailas began acting violently. As a child, he frequently set fires and tortured animals. He broke more than 230 windows at school. He forged a check in his mother’s name to pay for a girlfriend’s abortion. He was expelled from several schools. He stole valuable items from his mother, including a diamond ring. At 17, he began to abuse alcohol and drugs. He dropped out of school in the 11th grade.

By January of 1985, Bailas, then 18, had become so uncontrollable that his parents threw him out of their house on the recommendation of his child psychiatrist. Bailas had nowhere to live. At the time, he was dating a 16-year-old girl. The girl’s mother agreed to take Bailas into their home on Lee Road in Shaker Heights and let him live with them.

Marcia McClellan: A Vulnerable Target

The home of Bailas’ girlfriend stood diagonal to the rear of the home of Marcia MacClellan. Ms. MacClellan, 57, was a retired schoolteacher. She worked at Orange High School in Pepper Pike, Ohio until she retired in 1982. She lived alone in her family’s beautiful Tudor-style home in Shaker Heights, Ohio.

MacClellan’s home must have caught Bailas’ eye. He offered to shovel her driveway several times that winter. On February 12, 1985, Bailas and a friend broke into MacClellan’s home. Bailas told his friend to stay downstairs as a lookout while he went upstairs. Bailas went through MacClellan’s bedroom and stole jewelry, a gold ring, and some necklaces. As he came downstairs, MacClellan returned home. As she was backing into the driveway, Bailas and his friend ran out the back door.

A Brutal Assault

By March 1985, Bailas’ relationship with his girlfriend had soured. They both began seeing other people. On March 13,1985 Bailas came to his girlfriend’s home and tried to get inside through the back door to speak with her. She saw that he was bleeding from his face. She refused to let him inside.

Bailas became angry. He broke the kitchen door window in with his fist, reached inside, and unlocked the door. At the time, his girlfriend was on the phone with her mother’s secretary. Bailas stormed inside, ripped the phone cord out of the wall, and began beating his girlfriend in the face and head. Bailas then pulled a switchblade knife out from his coat and threatened to kill both her and himself.

Shaker Heights Police Officer Raymond Repko responded to the home after the secretary called 911. Bailas ran out the back door and attacked Officer Repko, punching him, shoving him, and screaming at him. Officer Repko subdued Bailas and placed him in the back of a patrol car. He was transported to St. Luke’s Hospital where he was treated for small cuts on his left check and on the knuckles of his right hand (presumably from punching through the window). The mother of Bailas’ girlfriend told police that she did not want to prosecute Bailas for the incident, but threw him out of her house.

A Crime Wave Continues

The next day, March 14,1985 Bailas was arrested for breaking into a vacant home at 16714 Fernway Road in Shaker Heights. The arresting officer saw Bailas several times over the prior few weeks breaking into vacant homes in the area. He saw that Bailas was always wearing a dark blue jacket and headphones. At the time of his arrest on March 14, Bailas was wearing a gold ring with a black stone bearing the inscription, “Colby Junior College for Women 1837 XLVII,” and with the initials “MJM” engraved on the inside. The ring belonged to Marcia MacClellan. Bailas pleaded no contest to the trespassing charge and was quickly released.

A Brutal Sadistic Murder

On the night of Saturday, March 23, 1985, Bailas called one of his friends. Bailas said that he was going to get a car the next day from a guy who was going to let him use it for a few days. The friend said okay, and went to bed.

The next day, Sunday, March 24, 1985, Bailas went to Marcia MacClellan’s home around 12:30 in the afternoon. Bailas knocked on the door. MacClellan answered, Bailas told her that he wanted to pay her back for a shovel he broke while shoveling snow for her. Bailas then pushed the door open and forced his way inside. He closed the door behind him. MacClellan asked why was closing the door. Bailas said that he had a gun and told her to give him her purse. MacClellan said, “You don’t have a gun,” and tried to run away through the living room. Bailas chased her. He picked up a fireplace poker and hit Ms. MacClellan in the head as she ran away. MacClellan fell to the floor. Bailas then got on his hands and knees and began to choke her.

Bailas asked Ms. MacClellan if she was going to call the police. MacClellan, unable to speak because Bailas’ hands were wrapped around her throat, nodded yes. Bailas got up and kicked her in the chest. He went to another room and got an electric steam iron. He went back to where MacClellan was lying and wrapped the cord from the iron around her neck, pulling it tight to cut off her air. He held it there until she lost consciousness. He later said that MacClellan’s eyes were open and bulging out as he strangled her.

Once he was satisfied that MacClellan was unconscious, Bailas took Ms. MacClellan by the ankles and started dragging her towards the stairs. He dragged MacClellan up the stairs to the bathroom and put her inside the bathtub. He turned the water on. As the water began to fill the tub, he took her by the wrists and tried to force her head under the water. When that did not work, he stepped on her neck, trying to crush her windpipe with his shoe and keep her head underwater. After about five minutes, he saw that MacClellan was still alive. He went to the medicine cabinet and got a bottle of Clorox Bleach. He poured the bleach on her face. Her body began to spasm and tremble. He went back to the medicine cabinet and took out a bottle of Crystal Vanish toilet bowl cleaner. He poured the Vanish on MacClellan’s face as well, but by that time, she was dead.

The coroner later determined that Marcia MacClellan died from a combination of cervical compression and drowning. She had a crushed larynx, multiple blunt impacts to the head, a severe laceration to the forehead where Bailas struck her with the fireplace poker, brush burns on her back, and fractures to three ribs.

Bailas left Ms. MacClellan’s body in the bathtub and went downstairs. He got about $180.00 in cash out of her purse on the dining room table. He also stole her car keys and the keys to her house. He began to worry that Ms. MacClellan might still be alive. He went back upstairs and checked on her, confirming that she was dead. He went into her bedroom and went through her drawers looking for valuables. He turned over her jewelry box on the bed, but did not find anything worth taking. He then went from room to room, looking for things to steal. When he did not find anything, he went back to the bathroom to check on MacClellan’s body a third time. He went back downstairs, took three bottles of Michelob beer from the refrigerator, and left.

A Foiled Escape Attempt

Bailas went to the garage, where he found MacClellan’s 1980 Oldsmobile Omega. As he got into the car, the batteries from his Walkman fell out onto the floor. Bailas started the car and backed up out of the garage. He tried to turn the car around in the driveway, but the driveway to the MacClellan home was very narrow, and he had some difficulty doing so. As Bailas struggled to turn the car around, he turned and saw a woman standing in the window of a neighbor’s home.

At around 2:30 p.m., a neighbor of Marcia MacClellan looked out of the window of her house and saw Alexander Bailas struggling to turn Ms. MacClellan’s Oldsmobile around in the back of the driveway. She did not recognize Bailas and was very suspicious as to why he was driving Ms. MacClellan’s car. When Bailas saw the neighbor watching him, he got out of the car, leaving the door open and forgetting to put the car in park. The neighbor saw Bailas hesitate, looking back at the car, before running away.

The neighbor raced out of her house over to MacClellan’s car to put it in park so that it did not hit anything. She went to MacClellan’s home and knocked on the door, yelling for her. She went back inside her home. Her mother tried calling MacClellan several times. When MacClellan did not answer the phone, she called the police and said they had seen someone trying to steal Ms. MacClellan’s car.

Police Arrest A Vicious Killer

Shaker Heights Police responded to Ms. MacClellan’s home. They found the back door unlocked. Inside, they found the bloody electric steam iron, the broken fireplace poker, and a trail of drag marks and blood stains leading from the living room to the stairs, up to the second floor, and into the bathroom. They opened the door to the bathroom to find Marcia MacClellan’s body lying in the bathtub, partially submerged in water. They also found Bailas’ fingerprints on the wooden doorframe leading from the kitchen to the dining room, and the batteries from his Walkman on the garage floor.

A witness described the suspect as wearing a dark blue jacket and with dark-colored headphones. The police officer who worked the previous burglary case immediately recognized the description of the suspect wearing headphones as Alexander Bailas – the suspect he arrested 10 days earlier breaking into an abandoned home, carrying MacClellan’s gold ring.

Bailas ran down Stockholm Road. He threw the money he stole from Ms. MacClellan on the ground in front of a home on Lee Road. He ran back to his girlfriend’s home. When he arrived, he went downstairs. He put the stolen keys to Ms. MacClellan’s home inside a locker in the basement. He went back upstairs and talked for a while with his girlfriend. About 30 minutes later, the police arrived and arrested Bailas.

A Killer Confesses

Shaker Heights Police interviewed Bailas that night. Bailas gave a full confession to killing Marcia MacClellan. Bailas, with a demeanor that the police reports described as very calm, said that he went to her home that day with the intention of robbing her. He said that the robbery escalated into a murder when Ms. MacClellan said she would call the police. He then described the events recited above in detail. Significantly, he denied being under the influence of any drugs or alcohol on the day of the murder.

The grand jury indicted Bailas for aggravated murder with multiple death penalty specifications, aggravated burglary, and aggravated robbery, as well as aggravated burglary and theft for the February 12 burglary of MacClellan’s home

A Killer Pleads Guilty To Avoid The Death Penalty

The evidence of Bailas’ guilt was beyond overwhelming. Police found his fingerprints inside Marcia MacClellan’s home. The marks on MacClellan’s neck matched the shoe print pattern on the bottom of Bailas’ tennis shoes. His shoes had blood on them when he was arrested. Neighbors saw him trying to steal MacClellan’s car out of her garage. He was arrested with MacClellan’s gold ring 10 days before the murder, which he stole during a prior break-in to MacClellan’s home. The keys to McClellan’s home were found in the locker in the basement of his girlfriend’s home where he was staying. He gave a full confession to the murder.

Faced with that overwhelming evidence, Bailas entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. The trial court referred Bailas to the Court Psychiatric Clinic for a competency and sanity evaluation. Dr. Robert Alcorn completed the competency evaluation, but was unable to perform the sanity evaluation because Bailas refused to discuss the murder on the advice of his attorneys.

On July 12, 1985, the trial court held a competency hearing. Dr. Alcorn testified that Bailas had a long history of antisocial behavior, but that he was quite capable of understanding the nature of his criminal proceedings. He concluded that Bailas was competent to stand trial.

Shortly thereafter, Bailas pleaded guilty to all counts and specifications in the indictment to avoid the death penalty. His attorneys acknowledged on the record during his plea hearing that he would not have prevailed on an insanity defense at trial.

A three-judge panel comprised of Judges Frank Gorman, Michael J. Corrigan, and Leo Spellacy, sentenced Bailas to 30-years to life imprisonment for the aggravated murder. For both counts of aggravated burglary, and the single count of aggravated robbery, the panel sentenced Bailas to 10-25 years in prison. And for the theft count, the panel sentenced Bailas to 1-1 1⁄2 years in prison. The panel ordered all counts to be served concurrently (at the same time) to one another. Bailas refused to say anything at sentencing.

Bailas appealed the trial court’s decision finding him competent. The court of appeals unanimously rejected Bailas’ claims on appeal.

No Parole

There are no words that can adequately capture what Alexander Bailas did to Marcia MacClellan. Bailas broke in by force, intending at a minimum to rob the home. When Ms. MacClellan challenged him, he beat her, strangled her, and drowned her in her bathtub. Marcia MacClellan was an innocent woman insider her own home; a retired schoolteacher; a neighbor who paid Bailas for shoveling her driveway when he asked. She died in unimaginable pain, humiliation, and fear, as she was beaten, choked, and drowned by a coward who ended her life for the small amount of money she had in her purse. Her death devastated the community of Shaker Heights and greater Cuyahoga County, and made the citizens of that community – especially older women – feel like they were not safe if they lived alone.

Given Bailas’ childhood history, as well as the brutality of Marcia MacClellan’s murder, the Ohio Parole Board can never be confident that Bailas can be trusted to live among other members of the general public. All of the same warning signs that existed in 1985 are still there to render Bailas an extreme danger to anyone with whom he comes into contact.

Due to the serious nature of the crime, Bailas’ release would create an undue risk to public safety, and would not further the interest of justice nor be consistent with the welfare and security of society. In addition, paroling Alexander Bailas would be a complete injustice to Marcia MacClellan and would demean his extreme cruelty to her. To protect the community and to further the interests of justice we urge the Ohio Parole Board to deny Alexander Bailas’ parole and continue his case for the maximum 10 years before his next parole hearing.