Vincent Doan Trial: 1997

There was also testimony about Doan's previously abusive treatment of Culberson. Culberson's boss at G & G Hair Studio, Desiree Gruber, told the jury that Carrie once came to work with a black eye. On another occasion, Culberson had bruises on her temple and fingerprint marks on her neck. One month before Carrie disappeared, Gruber testified that while shampooing Culberson's hair, she discovered medical staples on the back of Carrie's head. Culberson told Gruber that Doan had hit her with a space heater and that she was pressing charges.

Mitchell Epperson, Doan's jailmate while Doan was at the Queensgate Correctional Facility in November 1996 on traffic charges, testified that the two of them talked about girlfriends. That's when Doan said, "You can't let them walk. You got to make them pay." Doan also told Epperson that, concerning Culberson, he would "lie awake at night and think of a 100 different ways to kill her before I did."

The prosecution's final witness was Debra Culberson. One time, according to Debra, Doan said, "I've always slapped her [Carrie] around. I never hit her with my fist, I just slapped her." Debra also told the jury of how she approached Doan three times on August 29, 1996. Each time, Doan gave a different story about when he had last seen her. First, he told Debra that he had not seen Carrie for three days. A few hours later, Doan said that Carrie had come by his house at about 12:30 that morning. According to Doan, Carrie was honking her car horn and weaving inside her vehicle. He believed that she was drunk, so he closed the door to his house and ignored her until she left. The third time that he spoke to Debra, Doan told her that Carrie had arrived at about 12:30 A.M. and that he and Carrie went into his house. They argued and Carrie drove away after Doan told her that he did not love her anymore.

The defense tried to argue that there was nothing unusual about the relationship between Doan and Culberson. They also relied on the fact that there was no body or any other solid evidence that Culberson was dead. Indeed, Doan's lawyers argued that Culberson was still alive and called several witnesses who claimed to have seen her or her car since her disappearance.

Three women who were travelling together picked up a female hitchhiker on August 31, 1996, in Mount Orab (about 20 miles from Blanchester). They all testified that the woman resembled the picture of Culberson that was televised that weekend, but two of them also stated that the hitchhiker never mentioned Blanchester.

This same hitchhiker supposedly bought a soft drink at a store on August 31, but one of the store clerks couldn't remember what the young woman looked liked.

Other witnesses who claimed to have seen Culberson included one woman who spotted a red Honda CRX a week after Carrie's disappearance and said that the first four characters on the license plate was ROL 4. Culberson's missing car had the license plate number ROL 402. This witness admitted, however, that she had poor vision in one eye and that, when she was following the car, she was "hoping" that it was Culberson.

Kenneth Lancaster, a police officer from Norwood, Ohio, reported that he had observed a small red speeding car at about 4:30 A.M. on May 16, 1997. He only got a "quick glance" of the vehicle because it was traveling at a "full rate of speed" and, after a 30 or 40-minute search, he was unable to find the car. When Lancaster reported the vehicle to the police dispatcher, he wasn't sure about its license plate number, so he gave two, ROL 402 and RQL 402. By the time of Doan's trial, Lancaster had concluded that he had made a mistake. At no time before or during the trial did Lancaster say that he could identify the model of the car or its occupants.

Doan's stepfather, Lawrence Baker, testified to a possible alibi, saying that at about 1 A.M. on August 29 he and his wife, Betty, had received a call from their son who was calling from a friend's home in nearby Clermont County. (Phone records confirmed the timing of the call. The person from whose residence the call was made had earlier testified he observed no blood or bruises on Doan. The prosecution contended that Doan murdered Carrie after this call was made.)

Baker told the jury that, according to his stepson, a truck that Doan had borrowed from him had broken down about 15 miles away from Blanchester in Marathon. Baker suggested that Doan let the vehicle sit idle for a few minutes and, if the truck did not start then, to call back. Baker also stated that this particular truck could not travel faster than 45 or 50 miles an hour. Mr. and Mrs. Baker then waited about 15 or 20 minutes and, not hearing anything from Doan, they went to the other end of Blanchester to pick up another vehicle. On their way back, the couple stopped by Doan's house at about 1:30 A.M. and found Doan asleep on the couch with his front door open and his lights and TV on. However, when the prosecuting attorney cross-examined Baker and questioned how Doan could have driven from Marathon in a truck that could go only 45 or 50 miles an hour and still be home and asleep by 1:30, Baker pushed back his estimate of when he saw his son to 2 A.M.

Jury deliberations began on August 4, 1997. For four days, the six-man, six-woman jury deliberated. On August 7, Doan was found not guilty of premeditated murder. However, it did find Doan guilty of the charge that he had killed Culberson after he had kidnapped her and on three of the four kidnapping charges.

Three months later, the jury met to decide Doan's fate. He faced the death penalty, but the jury recommended life imprisonment without parole.