Bio

Brett Xavier Hartman was born on June 29, 1974. By the late 1990s, he resided in Akron, located within Summit County, Ohio. Public records contain limited data regarding his early domestic and professional life prior to 1997, though he worked a regular job alongside local co-workers in the northeastern Ohio region.

In the months preceding September 1997, Hartman frequented local establishments in the Akron area. It was during a visit to a neighborhood bar that the 23-year-old Hartman became acquainted with 46-year-old Winda D. Snipes. The two individuals established a casual relationship and engaged in consensual sexual encounters on several occasions. 

While those in his immediate circle did not observe overt signs of severe emotional instability or impending violence, subsequent statements introduced by acquaintances during legal proceedings revealed that Hartman had openly discussed theoretical methods of destroying physical evidence, specifically mentioning the removal of a victim's hands to prevent law enforcement from recovering forensic trace data.

Murder Story

On the morning of September 9, 1997, Hartman visited Winda Snipes at her apartment in Akron. Following a sexual encounter, a highly violent altercation took place. Hartman bound Snipes to her bed, slit her throat, and utilized a knife to stab her 138 times. To eliminate forensic traces and prevent identification through defensive scratch marks, Hartman amputated both of Snipes's hands, which were never recovered by law enforcement. 

Following the mutilation, Hartman systematically washed Snipes's blood from his person, wiped down surfaces to eradicate his fingerprints, and gathered physical evidence to disconnect himself from the apartment. He then placed two anonymous calls to emergency services to alert the police before hiding across the street to observe responding units.

Hartley initially approached officers at the active crime scene, making disparaging remarks about the victim, stating she was a unstable individual who deserved the outcome, while expressing anger that she had refused certain sexual acts. Summit County sheriff's deputies arrested Hartman the following day, on September 10, 1997, after executing a search warrant at his residence. 

Investigators recovered a bloody T-shirt from his bedroom, a knife from his dresser, and Snipes's personal wristwatch from his nightstand. Jailhouse informants and a co-worker also testified that Hartman had explicitly spoken about removing hands to destroy physical indicators. While Hartman later altered his narrative—claiming he left the apartment, returned to find her already dead, and merely panicked and cleaned the scene—the jury rejected his explanation.

A Summit County grand jury indicted Hartman on charges of aggravated murder, kidnapping, and tampering with evidence. His trial concluded on April 30, 1998, with guilty verdicts on all counts, and Judge Michael T. Callahan formally sentenced him to the death penalty on May 22, 1998. Hartman spent 14 years on death row at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution, during which he became an ordained minister for the Christ Assembly of Churches and consistently maintained his innocence. 

Following a series of federal court delays regarding state execution protocols, Ohio Governor John Kasich denied his final clemency request on November 5, 2012. Hartman was executed via a lethal injection of pentobarbital at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville on November 13, 2012.