HAMILTON — Death penalty cases in Butler County cost taxpayers three to four more times the price of life-without-parole trial, a local judge said.

Hector Alvarenga Retana, allegedly a member of the MS-13 gang, goes on trial in a death penalty case on Oct. 31. If past cases are any indication, his trial will be costly for the county. Retana is accused of a 2008 gang-style double homicide in a Fairfield restaurant parking lot.

His accomplice, Edel Hernandez-Martinez, also faced the death penalty for the Casa Tequila slayings but he received a 78-year-to-life sentence in March.

Butler County Common Pleas Judge Michael Sage said it’s hard to pin a hard dollar amount on the cost of death penalty cases.

He estimates the price tag around $250,000, which is low comparably.

An Indiana analysis by the Legislative Services Agency for the General Assembly found the average cost to a county for a trial and direct appeal in a capital case was over 10 times more than a life-without-parole case. The average death case cost $449,887, while the average cost of a life-without-parole case was only $42,658.

A recent case in Cleveland cost taxpayers more than $600,000.

Sage said the salaries for himself and his staff, prosecutors, the clerks office, sheriff’s deputies who provide security and others can’t be factored exactly. Certain direct costs, such as jury expenses and attorneys fees for indigent defendants can be calculated. The whole cost to taxpayers is elusive, but he knows it’s expensive, and that’s just at the trial level.

“It is so great we can’t afford to pay for that directly out of our ongoing budget,” he said. “All the costs associated with that we take directly to the commissioners. If you include the direct costs and indirect costs I think it would be somewhere around $250,000 per case.”

Sage presided over the Calvin McKelton double homicide — he killed his girlfriend and the man who witnessed the slaying — last fall and the direct cost tally was $58,140.

The direct costs included food and hotel rooms for jurors, more than $40,000 for the defense attorneys because McKelton was deemed indigent and transcripts needed for the appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court.

Most death penalty defendants are indigent, which means the county has to pay for their defense. The law provides that two death penalty certified attorneys must be on the case and money is also allotted for some experts.

This week, more taxpayer costs were asked for in the Retana case. Attorney Greg Howard asked Judge Craig Hedric for money for clothes for his client to wear in court and $2,500 to bring witnesses here from North Carolina. The judge hasn’t ruled on the motions yet. However, some of the counties expenses for these trials are partially reimbursed by the Ohio Public Defenders Office.

The current reimbursement rate is 35 percent, according to Court Administrator Gary Yates.

If a defendant is sentenced to death, his case is automatically appealable to the Ohio Supreme Court. The prosecutors handle that appeal and the state Public Defenders Office takes over the defendant’s defense. Tim Young, director of the OPD, said he doesn’t have a breakdown of how much is spent on capital crime appeals, but the maximum fee allowed for Butler County is $10,000.

Most capital cases also flow through the federal courts and can drag on for decades. A study done for the Kansas Legislature pegged the total cost if a case lands at the state supreme court from $1.2 million to $2.4 million. Capital cases where the death penalty was not sought were estimated to cost between $700,000 to $1 million.

Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser said he does not take the decision to ask for a death penalty lightly.

“It is the type of case that shocks the conscience, and I hope that I have the conscience of the community in mind when I make that decision...,” he said. “There are cases where the individual is beyond redemption. When the facts are clear and the conduct shocks and the person is perceived to be beyond redemption, the jury ought to have the opportunity to say ‘we don’t want to just lock you up we think you deserve not to breathe in our world anymore.’ Now that’s pretty cold, but let’s face it, the death penalty is a legal penalty under our law.”

Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor recently convened a panel of stake holders to study the death penalty and how it is working in the state. She said she doesn’t have any preconceived outcomes, but the discussion needs to happen.

“It’s not a panel to look at whether we should have the death penalty in Ohio because that’s a legislative and executive decision,” she said. “This is more the application, how it’s utilized. We want to take a look at everything from the charging decisions that are made, the defense that is available to defendants, the type of attorneys that are available, that whole system, how courts deal with it, how they process it, considerations with costs. Everything that goes into how the decision is made to charge to the final decision for sentencing.”

Chris Pagan, who has defended in several death penalty cases, said he sent O’Connor a letter asking to be part of the discussion because he has some ideas he thinks would benefit the system he is phasing himself out of. He said he can’t afford to handle these cases anymore, with the paltry fees he is allowed.

He also pointed to the Cleveland serial killer Anthony Sowell’s case, where the defense attorneys collected nearly $600,000 worth of taxpayer money and never called a single defense witness, as evidence the system is unfair.

“The costs here are extremely low compared with the costs in other metropolitan areas,” he said. “The funding has to be leveled out in a statewide reasonable way.... Here they get a great bargain and I don’t know that the funds are sufficient. I’m not doing it anymore I can’t afford it. You get 40 bucks an hour and my overhead costs more than that. And it’s a thankless job.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4525 or dcallahan@coxohio.com.