'I am a monster,' Barberton man says during his sentencing for woman's 1991 murder

The father of a Tallmadge woman slain 32 years ago told his daughter’s killer not to look at him Friday afternoon during his plea and sentencing.

When Daniel Rees glanced again at Larry Johnson, Rachael Johnson’s father, Johnson took a step toward him and sheriff’s deputies stepped between them.

“It never ends,” Johnson said during Rees’ sentencing in Summit County Common Pleas Court. “They say ‘closure.’ What the hell is closure? I ask that you your honor give him what he deserves, please. I’d like to see him spend a lifetime in prison.”

Johnson’s remarks, which he had trouble delivering because he was so distraught, were part of Rees’ long and emotional sentencing.

Rees, 60, of Barberton, pleaded guilty Friday to aggravated murder under an agreement with prosecutors that means he won’t go to trial and face a possible death sentence. Prosecutors agreed to change the underlying offense in the charge from rape to kidnapping.

“I am a monster,” Rees said during his remarks. “What I did is horrendous. The crime I did is horrendous.”

Judge Susan Baker Ross sentenced Rees to life in prison with possible parole after 30 years. That was the most severe penalty Ohio had, besides the death penalty, in 1991 when Johnson was killed.

Johnson was found dead on March 30, 1991, in Akron’s Chapel Hill neighborhood. Police said the Tallmadge woman suffered blunt force trauma and had been sexually assaulted, stabbed multiple times and set on fire before being found near Home and Weller avenues by a passerby.

Akron detectives arrested Rees in March 2020, nearly 29 years after Johnson’s murder. He was tied to the case through DNA evidence and genealogical database research.

Rees had no significant criminal history and hadn’t been a suspect in the case.

His arrest was a shock for Johnson’s family members because Rees had been part of the family’s lives for much of the time since the murder. Rees, who never married and had no children, was a family friend of Johnson’s daughter and worked with Johnson’s sister at a printing company.

Killer nearby? Police say woman’s killer was ‘hiding in plain sight’

Rees was charged with aggravated murder and murder and was scheduled to go to trial in early October. If convicted, he faced the death penalty. This would have been the first time in Summit County that genealogical research had been used in a murder trial.

DNA leads police to Rees

Investigators had a DNA profile from Johnson’s autopsy in 1991 but had been unable to find a match.

In the summer of 2019, Akron Detective Jim Pasheilich hired AdvanceDNA in Texas to assist with the cold case.

Cheryl Hester, director of genetic genealogy at the company, said AdvanceDNA uploaded the unknown DNA profile to databases that could connect it to distant relatives. After matches were found, they reverse-engineered a family tree.

Combining the family tree with information like age and location, the company gave police a list of three brothers who had ties to Summit County. One of those brothers, Daniel, lived on Fouse Avenue in Akron in March 1991, which is near where Johnson was last seen alive.

Pasheilich collected trash left behind by Rees in February 2020 to collect his DNA. Rees’ DNA profile matched the unknown profile collected during Johnson’s autopsy, which Pasheilich said was a 1 in 1 trillion match.

Pasheilich went to Rees’ home on March 2, 2020, to ask Rees what he recalled about Johnson and her slaying. Rees admitted to knowing Johnson and her family, but said he never had sex with Johnson or been involved with her.

Pasheilich asked Rees to voluntarily provide a DNA sample but he refused.

“Nowadays, people have been incriminated on DNA,” Rees said in the recorded interview.

Rees confesses, then attempts suicide, prosecutors say

About a week later, Pasheilich got a call from Tim Rees, Daniel’s brother, who said Daniel had confessed to him that he killed Johnson.

Tim Rees said his brother then tried to take his own life at a Springfield Township hotel.

On a full-length mirror in the hotel, prosecutors said, Rees wrote “REDRUM,” which is murder spelled backward and is the message a character in the horror classic “The Shining” saw in a mirror.

Rees also wrote some random messages on notebook pages in the hotel, prosecutors said. “God, please forgive me,” he said in one and then signed his name. In another, he gave a list of contact numbers and said, “Tell them all I’m sorry.”

A few notes featured song lyrics, including “Got a good reason for taking the easy way out,” a line from a Beatles song.

“It was some bizarre stuff,” said Assistant Prosecutor Jonathan Baumoel.

Rees took prescription drugs and alcohol and was found passed out in the hotel. He also had a gun, Baumoel said.

Pasheilich visited Rees at Summa Akron City Hospital, but Rees refused to talk to him and asked for a lawyer.

Pasheilich arrested Rees on March 11 and got a search warrant for his DNA. The detective said Rees’ DNA matched the sample from Johnson’s autopsy.

Attorneys challenge Rees’ statement and DNA evidence

Rees’ attorneys challenged the admissibility of Rees’ statement and the DNA evidence collected from his trash and through the genealogy research.

Methods challenged: Defense attorneys challenge tactics used in cold-case investigation of 1991 murder

Joe Gorman and Erik Jones argued that this evidence violated Rees’ constitutional rights.

The attorneys said detectives should have read Rees his Miranda rights before questioning him and gotten a search warrant before extracting the DNA from items taken from Rees’ trash and prior to AdvanceDNA doing its research.

Baumoel, though, said Rees didn’t have an expectation of privacy regarding trash left on his curb. He said AdvanceDNA used genealogical databases and other public information to provide detectives with potential leads in the case.

Ross, who took over Rees’ case in February after the original judge recused herself from the case, ruled May 3 that all this evidence could be presented at the trial.

This key evidence being permitted opened the way for talks of a plea deal.

Baumoel said Johnson’s family was willing to accept Rees getting a 30-year-to-life sentence to be spared a trial.

Johnson's family members express their grief and anger

Several of Johnson’s family members spoke during Rees’ plea and sentencing Friday, not mincing words about the grief and anger they’ve carried for more than three decades.

“I don’t know what she smelled like,” said Katelin Puzakulics, Rachael’s daughter who was 2 when she was killed. “I don’t know what her hugs were like. I don’t know what it’s like to have a mom.”

Puzakulics asked Rees to look at her when she addressed him.

“I know you, but I don’t know her!” she said, pointing to Rees. “What kind of hate did you have for her to make you do that? I just wish you’d answer that.”

Larry Johnson Jr., Rachael’s brother, said he wishes Rees had gone to trial.

“I want you dead!” he told Rees.

Leila Hanes, Rachael’s sister, said she worked with Rees from 2007 to 2010 and he was her favorite co-worker. She said he told her he “knew of” her sister but didn’t really know her.

“He was enjoying getting away with murder,” Hanes said. “To know someone’s a monster is one thing. To find out you’ve been on a coffee break with one is another thing entirely.”

To Rees, Hanes said, “How dare you? You’re an abomination and a coward!”

Gorman said Rees isn’t the same person he was 30 years ago and didn’t want the Johnson family to go through a trial. He said the likelihood is that Rees, who will be 90 when he first comes up for parole, won’t leave prison.

“This is a life sentence,” Gorman said. “He understood that walking in here.”

Rees apologized to Johnson’s family not just for her slaying but also for how he befriended them afterward.

“I think that was the worst thing to do,” he said.

Rees said he hopes that him being sentenced will help the family, especially knowing he’ll likely spend the rest of his days behind bars.

Ross offered the Johnson family her condolences and said she’s glad they won’t have to go through the long process of a capital murder trial. She said she hopes they follow Puzakulics’s lead and don’t hold hate in their hearts.

“That anger and hate in the heart — it does eat you alive from the inside,” she said. “When you forgive, it’s not saying what the person did was okay. It’s saying you will not let it rule your heart.”

Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com, 330-996-3705 and on Twitter: @swarsmithabj.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Daniel Rees accepts plea deal to avoid death penalty for 1991 murder