An Ohio man accused of raping a 10-year-old girl and then killing the victim and her grandparents in an arson fire jumped to his death from a courthouse balcony Monday ahead of his trial for the triple murders, authorities said.
Robert Seman, 48, died after leaping from a railing on the fourth floor and falling more than 50 feet from the ground onto the marble-floored rotunda of the Mahoning County Courthouse, according to the Youngstown Vindicator. Mahoning County Sheriff Jerry Greene told CNN it was an apparent suicide.
The suspect, who was set to go on trial later this week, was accused of fatally setting fire to the home of 10-year-old rape victim Corinne Gump, who was slated to testify against him, WKBN 27 reports. His death prompted cheers from those who were familiar with the case.
“I hollered, ‘Hallelujah!’” the victim’s neighbor Jean McCammon told the Vindicator. “Lucifer is digesting the weirdest, meanest soul that was ever on this earth.”
“That was an evil, evil man,” said a prosecutor at the scene of Seman’s death, according to the Vindicator.
