Editor's Note: As 2021 comes to a close, the News Journal is looking back at the top stories of the year. Today we begin by reviewing the 10th, 9th and 8th biggest stories of 2021.
Doug and Tammy Wertz didn't waste time during the shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The people behind the Mansfield Playhouse gave the interior of the theater a makeover while it was closed.
They got an idea for the project while in the process of changing the chairs in the theater.
More:Mansfield Playhouse gets facelift during COVID-19 shutdown
"We've been thinking about seating for many years," Doug Wertz previously told the News Journal.
The chairs had not been changed since 1985. Even those weren't new. Wertz found some imprints on the chairs from 1929.
"I found these online. This gentleman had them on eBay," Wertz said. "He had them listed for 20 bucks apiece and 20 bucks for shipping."
When the owner of the chairs found out the Playhouse is a nonprofit organization, he agreed to waive shipping costs.
Wertz ordered the chairs on a Friday, and they arrived from Connecticut the following Tuesday. He and Tammy spent part of their wedding anniversary unloading them.
The next part of the project was removing the 288 existing chairs, which were anchored to the floor.
As for the new look, the Wertzes spent a few weeks on painting, going with an Art Deco style to match the chairs.
Instead of a drab gray, the woodwork now features a color combination of wine and blue-green.
Former Playhouse board president Char Hutchison passed away in December 2020. Her family asked people, in lieu of sending flowers, to make donations to the Playhouse in Hutchison's memory.
"They wanted the funds dedicated to a long-term project," Wertz said.
The Playhouse's facelift also includes new chandeliers, replacing ones that came from the Leland Hotel.
"These are a little bigger and more ornate," Wertz said.
He said the Playhouse could not have afforded to pay for labor to do the renovations.
In February, 23-year-old Shelby resident Alec Blair was sentenced to 45 years to life in prison for the stabbing death of his estranged wife, Gaberien "Gabe" Clevenger, 22.
Blair stabbed her 14 times on Feb. 10, 2020. Less than a week before her death, Clevenger was denied a protection order by a domestic relations court magistrate.
More:'You are a monster': Alec Blair sentenced for stabbing wife to death
More:Blair pleads guilty as charged in stabbing death of estranged wife
Phil Naumoff, Richland County common pleas judge, said he agonized over the sentence.
"This is hard, and I have to put my feelings aside," he said in court. "I have to temper my anger with what is just. I gave you what I feel is the just sentence in this matter based on the law."
In October 2020, Blair pleaded guilty as charged in the case.
Along with aggravated murder, Blair pleaded guilty to three counts of murder, four counts of kidnapping, two counts of felonious assault, two counts of abduction and single counts of tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse.
The first sign something was wrong happened when a friend of Clevenger became concerned that she did not show up for work at Bob Evans Restaurant.
Authorities have only Blair's word for what happened. He led them to a field on Bowman Street Road, near a cell tower in Jackson Township, where Clevenger's body was found.
Blair had lured Clevenger into his vehicle with the promise they would go the county courthouse about a divorce.
The stabbing happened in the driveway of Blair's home in the 900 block of Taylortown Road, east of Shelby.
Blair went inside his house to pick up his lunch before work. While inside, he also grabbed a knife.
After dumping her body, Blair went to his job. A ping on Clevenger's phone linked it to an area near Blair's place of employment.
He wrote a letter to the court, saying he still loves Clevenger and sometimes wishes he could wake up beside her. He called the situation a "horrible nightmare."
"I wish it wasn't real," he wrote. "I have to deal with this every day for the rest of my life."
Blair wrote that he tried to let go of Clevenger, his wife of about eight months, but could not.
"Every little thing reminded me of her, and it drove me crazy," he wrote.
Prosecutor Gary Bishop asked Naumoff to consider sentencing Blair to life without parole.
"He stabbed her 14 times," Bishop said. "He nearly severed her head from her body and dumped her in a field.
"This was a simple case of rage brought on by petty jealousy."
Bishop said Blair planned the murder.
Defense attorney Terry Hitchman made a sentencing recommendation of 35 years to life. He said Blair had been a "model inmate" at the county jail and had led a small Bible group.
"There was a grip on him— of anger, of rage, of passion, of disappointment," Hitchman said. "Is this the most horrific form of aggravated murder? I'm not going to debate that."
Naumoff drew the hearing to a close.
"Mr. Blair, we were all young once in life," he said, making reference to brain development. "We all went through turmoil. We handled things differently, I guess."
"I will never, ever forgive myself, and I don't expect anyone else to," he said.
Blair is an inmate at London Correctional Institution. His first parole hearing is scheduled for December 2064.
Rebecca Harris, accused in the shooting death of her husband, is scheduled for trial on Jan. 11 in Richland County Common Pleas Court.
The 29-year-old is charged with aggravated murder, murder, three counts of tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse.
Todd Blevins, 38, was found dead April 27 in the basement at his residence at 31 Second Ave. in Lexington. Harris confessed to shooting him in the head nine days earlier, according to Lexington police.
She told police she shot her husband in the head when he was attempting to choke her in bed on April 18, according to a Lexington police report.
Blevins' body was tied up and wrapped in a tarp, and there was recently poured concrete on the wrapped body, according to Mansfield Municipal Court records.
More:Police: Lexington woman confesses to fatally shooting husband
Lexington police received a missing persons report on Blevins on April 27.
"Throughout the course of the investigation, information was gained that the missing man's wife may have had knowledge of his disappearance. Contact was made with the wife at the couple's residence," police Chief Brett Pauley said in the news release.
"At first she was cooperative with officers and allowed them inside their home, but ended the contact and asked them (police) to leave while she picked up her children from school," Pauley said. "Officers then went outside and secured the house while a search warrant was requested. After getting the warrant, officers entered the residence and found the man deceased in the basement."
According to the police report, Harris said she was involved in a fight with her husband on April 18. Their children were home at the time.
She said her husband was being rude, picking a fight with her. The children went to bed, she went to bed soon after, and her husband came upstairs to bed around 11:30 p.m. or midnight.
The couple own a 9mm handgun, she told police. It is always stored in a gun safe, which is kept in a dresser drawer. However, when Harris went upstairs, she removed the handgun from the safe and placed it under her pillow, according to the report.
"Once Todd was in bed with Rebecca, he continued to agitate her and started kicking her out of the bed," the report said.
Harris reportedly said Blevins reached over and started choking her before she shot him. She said the children did not wake up and she went downstairs to sleep on the couch, according to the investigative report supplement.
The next day after taking the kids to school, Harris wrapped the man in the bedding and dragged him to the basement, according to police. Her intent was to put Blevins' body in the chest freezer but it would not fit, she reportedly told officers.
In the days after the murder, Harris purchased the concrete. She told officers some of the bedding was placed in the attic crawl space and she had buried a rug in the backyard, the police report said.