Pictured are former Akron police captain and convicted murderer Douglas Prade, his murdered ex wife, Dr. Margo Prade (in red blouse with necklace), Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh (in red blouse and black suit jacket), and Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor (in Black blouse)(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com). Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com

By Editor-in-Chief Kathy Wray Coleman, a-23-year journalist who trained at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio for 17 years, and who interviewed now President Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS

AKRON, Ohio-Former Akron police captain Douglas Prade who is serving a life sentence after a conviction in 1998 of murdering ex-wife Dr. Margo Prade, a popular Akron physician, will not get a new trial, a judge ruled Friday.

Summit County Common Pleas Judge Christine Croce, in an 18-page decision, determined that Douglas Prade's  attorneys did not present any evidence that had not already be assessed by the trial court jury.

“The defendant has failed to introduce any new evidence that the jury had not already considered during the 1998 trial,” said Croce.

Margo Prade, 41 and slated at the time to marry a local attorney, was found shot to death in her minivan outside of her medical office in November 1997. She was shot six times and had a bite mark on her arm, the coroner said.

Her ex-husband, whom prosecutor's said at trial was jealous and allegedly staked her, served 15 years of his life sentence until January 2013 when visiting judge Judy Hunter, a retired Summit County Common Pleas judge who was handpicked to hear the case by Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor, freed him based on DNA evidence relative to a bite mark that she ruled was not Prade's.

That bite mark was a cornerstone of prosecutors' arguments at trial for a conviction, public records reveal.

The Ohio 9th District Court of Appeals, in March 2014, overturned Hunter's ruling, sending Douglas Prade back to prison after some 14 months of freedom, and the Ohio Supreme Court, 4-3, declined to hear the appeal of that decision.

The case was sent back to the trial court for Croce, a sitting judge who replaced visiting judge Hunter in the case, to decide, after a hearing, whether to order a new trial, which she denied on Friday., setting the stage for more appeals in the ongoing legal saga.

Douglas Prade's attorneys said Friday that they will likely appeal.

Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh told Cleveland Urban News.Com in 2014, after the 9th District reversed visiting judge Hunter's exoneration of the once decorated former police captain via DNA, or what she says is a lack thereof,  that Douglas Prade is as guilty as sin.

The evidence, said Walsh, is overwhelming against Douglas Prade, whom she portaged at trial in 1998 as a narcissistic control freak with no conscience.

"The information presented by the defense supposedly proves Prade's innocence is, as stated by the Ninth District Court of Appeals judgment released last month, wholly questionable and meaningless,"  said Walsh.

The celebrated case is being closely watched by Akron's Black community, particularly since Margo Prade was Black, and her ex-husband, Douglas Prade, is Black.

A city some 35 miles south of Cleveland that has a population of roughly 200,000 people and is 28 percent Black, Akron is the hometown of Cleveland Cavaliers power forward and megastar LeBron James.