Ohio triple murder defendant jumps off court balcony, dies
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – Youngstown triple murder defendant Robert Seman has jumped to his death off a fourth-floor balcony in the Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas.
He landed in the courtroom rotunda, where a sheet is over his body. Seman was on his way back to the Mahoning County Jail from the courthouse.
Seman was accused of setting fire to a Youngstown home in March of 2015, killing 10-year-old Corinne Gump and her grandparents, Bill and Judy Schmidt. Prosecutors said Seman set fire to the house where they lived because Gump was set to testify against him in a rape case.
The trial was set for April 17 in Portage County. He was in the Mahoning County court for a last-minute status hearing before the trial.
According to court employees, the last time that someone committed suicide by diving off a railing in the Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas was in 1947. Frank Rigelsky jumped off the fourth floor. He had been worrying about making alimony payments to his estranged wife after he had been involved in a car accident, according to news reports at the time.