Donna Marie Roberts, an American convicted of being an accomplice to murder, is the only woman on death row in the State of Ohio.
Early life
Roberts was born and raised in Youngstown, Ohio, and was a student of Austintown Fitch High School. She enrolled at Youngstown State University for two years and in 1966, she married her first husband William Raymond and moved to Miami, Florida. She had one child, Michael Raymond, in 1969. She and William Raymond divorced in 1971. She remarried her second husband Burton Gelfand in 1972 and later divorced him in 1980. Roberts converted to Judaism while living in Miami, Florida, and worked as a plastic surgeon assistant for over 20 years in North Miami Beach. Roberts met her late husband Robert Fingerhut in 1980. They married and bought a home in Miami, near Miami Gardens and Ives Estates in 1983. They later sold their home and moved to Richmond, Virginia for one year, and in 1993, the couple moved back to Roberts' hometown of Youngstown, Ohio. Roberts purchased their new home in Warren in 1994 on Fonderlac Avenue. During this time, Roberts and Fingerhut managed the Avis Car Rental franchise at the Youngstown–Warren Regional Airport for several years. They later managed both the Youngstown and Warren Greyhoundbus stations and turned them into successful locations. For a short period of time, Roberts also ran a small restaurant located within the Youngstown Bus Terminal called "Just the Ticket".
Murder conviction
Roberts was convicted in 2003 of recruiting Nathaniel E. Jackson while he was still in prison to kill her ex-husband Robert Fingerhut, which he did on December 11, 2001, in the house Roberts and Fingerhut continued to share after their private divorce. In her appeal, it is alleged that the police performed an illegal search of her car parked inside the garage since the search warrant was only for the home. Jackson stated that Roberts had no knowledge of his planned actions and this was video taped during his confession by the police and he also stated this during his trial. Jackson has also since been sentenced to death for his role in the murder. Jackson's story did not hold water when the Trumbull CountySheriff's department intercepted several letters of their plans as well as recordings of their jailhouse phone calls.
