Man on death row for brutally killing elderly couple dies in prison before execution
Charles Lorriane was sentenced to die on 13 May 2026, however officials said he died on Sunday
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A death row inmate who was sentenced back in 1986 for killing an elderly couple died on Sunday before his execution ever took place.
Charles Lorraine, 56, died at the Ohio Corrections Medical Centre at 5pm, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections confirmed on Sunday.
The cause of death has yet to be released.
Lorraine was sentenced to death on 6 May 1986 after he killed Raymond Montgomery, 77, and his 80-year-old wife, Doris Montogomery, who was bedridden at the time. He entered their home on Haymaker Avenue in Warren, Ohio, and fatally stabbed the couple with a butcher’s knife.
He stabbed Mr Montogomery five times and his wife nine times.
Lorraine’s execution was rescheduled several times while he was on death row.
He was supposed to be executed on 15 March 2023, but Governor Mike DeWine delayed his execution after the state of Ohio could not obtain any lethal execution drugs.
His last rescheduled date to die was 13 May 2026.
Lorraine, who was only 19 at the time he killed the couple, had a long criminal history and was out on bail at the time for robbery and burglary charges.
After the fatal stabbings, he met up with friends at a bar in Warren and spent the money he stole from the couple.
He eventually ran out of money, and stole a car from another elderly woman to try and get back to the couple’s home to steal more cash.
“As he was walking from the home, Lorraine came upon a friend – who later became a witness at trial – and told him that he just killed ‘two old f***s,’ and that he was buying drinks,” Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, who remembers the trial of Mr Lorraine, told Mahoning Matters, a local news outlet.
His friend eventually gave information to the police after the bodies had been discovered. Police interviewed Mr Lorraine, who confessed entirely, saying the “drugs made me do it.”
“At trial, the defence team tried to convince jurors that others were to be blamed for Lorraine’s brutal, criminal behaviour along with the drugs,” Mr Watkins said. “However, the jury saw it otherwise – and Lorraine was given the death sentence.”
According to Mahoning Matters, Lorraine had filed several appeals to try and get him out of the death penalty, including stating he had a mental illness.
In 2012, a postponement was placed by a federal judge on the executions of three death row inmates, including Lorraine due to the result of a challenge of Ohio’s death row protocol in the Supreme Court.
Lorraine’s execution date was eventually rescheduled several more times, yet he the convict died of undisclosed circumstances before he could be given capital punishment.