By Brett Milam
Editor
The Sun has been following a number of cases since 2018 and 2019. As we head into 2020, we wanted to update our readers on the status of those cases.
Milford man accused of raping a seven-year-old
James Dillard West, 86, was charged with three counts of gross sexual imposition and two counts of rape of a seven-year-old on Dec. 4, 2018. He’s also been charged with felonious assault in the second degree.
The charges stem from incidents occurring between April, 22 2012 through April 21, 2013, involving West’s neighbor, who lives across the street from him on Hobby Horse Lane in Milford.
“Her [the victim’s] family was closely associated with him; she would go to his house on many occasions,” Scott O’Reilly, assistant prosecuting attorney, said.
The felonious assault charge concerns the victim being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after the prior assaults. The victim has required “significant psychotherapy to address the sexual abuse,” O’Reilly said.
West has been out on $150,000 surety bond, with a no-contact condition, that he posted on Dec. 5, 2018. At that time, West pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In February 2019, West’s defense attorneys Mark Tekulve and David Gast, motioned Clermont County Common Pleas Judge Jerry McBride for a psychiatric examination of West’s present mental condition, noting that West suggested to the court he’s not now competent to stand trial.
Later that month, McBride ordered that the Community Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Cincinnati perform an evaluation of West’s mental condition. A second examination was ordered in May 2019.
In April 2019, Dorothy Smith, assistant prosecutor, filed a motion to revoke bond.
“Information was provided to a representative of the Prosecutor’s Office that defendant had verbal contact with the alleged victim,” Smith told the judge.
McBride said no violation was found at a May 2019 hearing.
In August 2019, two different doctors, Erin Nichting and Paul Deardorff, provided opinions that West was incompetent. That same month, O’Reilly requested the court order West into treatment to obtain competency to stand trial within a year.
“The discrepancy is found as to whether the defendant is capable of being restored to competency,” O’Reilly argued. “The primary concern with both the testimony and the psychological testing is the evidence that the defendant was malingering.”
That is, the O’Reilly argued West was “engaging in the purposeful production of falsely or grossly exaggerated physical and/or psychological symptoms with the goal of receiving a reward.”
O’Reilly said the reward in this case would be a finding of incompetence with no ability to be restored to competency.
Deardorff, who is the defense’s expert, believes West suffers from dementia — a finding O’Reilly disputed.
“The defendant was living in his own residence, and was able to care for all of his needs on a daily basis,” O’Reilly said.
O’Reilly said the court should find there is a substantial probability that West will become competent to stand trial with treatment, and that the court so order West to be placed in Summit Behavioral Healthcare to reach competency.
In its counter closing argument, Tekulve and Gast argued that West does have dementia and is not only incompetent to stand trial, but will be unable to be restored within the time allotted by law.
“West has been known to show up for holidays on the wrong date, and he cannot remember to take his medications without assistance,” they argued.
They also said while he does live alone, he does need the assistance of others due to his “increasing memory problems.”
“Simply put, West’s age and accompanying mental health condition creates plain neurocognitive problems preventing him from being able to be restored to competency under the time allotted by law,” they said.
McBride has yet to rule on the case.
Clowers argued he faced double jeopardy; McBride disagreed
Robert Clowers, who was convicted in 2018 for the assault and kidnapping of his pregnant ex-girlfriend, faces new charges in Clermont County Common Pleas Court.
Clowers, 46, was charged on April 4, 2019, with two counts of conspiracy to commit aggravated murder.
On Nov. 9, 2018, Clowers was found not guilty of another conspiracy to commit murder charge, after Clowers allegedly tried to have his girlfriend killed while in Clermont County Jail.
Judge Jerry McBride in his ruling found that the state failed to prove the conspiracy because it did not allege a substantial, overt act in furtherance of a conspiracy. McBride said the indictment itself failed to do this.
The assault and kidnapping occurred on Jan. 7, 2018, in which Clowers assaulted and kidnapped Teresa Akroush in East Fork State Park, and then a month later tried to allegedly pay a man $2,000 to kill her.
With the new conspiracy to commit murder charge, it still concerns that same incident from January 2018. This time, however, the indictment is more specific about the “furtherance of a conspiracy” part that McBride previously found lacking.
“Defendant directed a confidential information to draw a map of the home of the intended targets of the aggravated murder,” the indictment said. “Defendant provided targets’ address, the type of car driven by the intended target, and defendant’s mother’s address to be included on the map.”
The informant was to shoot the intended targets, provided photographs to that effect, and get paid $2,000, the indictment said.
Bond was set at $500,000, and Clowers pleaded not guilty on April 19, 2019.
In June, his defense attorneys, Lara Baron and Matthew Wiseman, filed a motion to dismiss the case. They argued Clowers’ right to not be charged for the same alleged offense twice, as guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment’s double jeopardy clause, has been violated. They also argued the State waited five months to filed the new indictment.
“The State knew about its mistake and chose to sit on its hands, manipulating the criminal justice system in order to harass Clowers,” they argued.
Miller, on behalf of the State, argued in a response that since the court dismissed the charges of conspiracy to commit aggravated murder charges, and didn’t make a determination of guilt or innocence, the double jeopardy clause doesn’t apply.
As to the argument about delay, Miller said there has been no claim as to the State “delaying the subsequent indictment to gain a tactical advantage, nor could there be.”
In November 2019, McBride ruled on the motion to dismiss; he noted that double jeopardy does not apply in this case. McBride said the court dismissing the two conspiracy to commit aggravated murder charges does not bar a subsequent trial because that dismissal was based on the defense’s own motion, and it wasn’t related to a factual rendering of guilt or innocence.
McBride also agreed with Miller that any pre-indictment delay has not prejudiced Clowers.
By December 2019, a trial was set for March 23 through March 27 at 10 a.m.
Cincinnati man sentenced to 21 years for rape
A Cincinnati man, charged with 22 counts of felony rape, was arrested Aug. 8, 2019 in Clermont County four months after first being indicted.
Tyrone McCrary, 25, from the Winton Hills neighborhood in Cincinnati, was indicted on those charges on April 4, 2019 in Clermont County Common Pleas Court.
All 22 charges stem from incidents in 2013 and 2014: a charge for the last six months in 2013, twice; and for the first five months of 2014, twice.
The first 11 charges involved a victim who was seven-years-old at the time of the first offense.
The next 11 charges involved a second victim, who was six-years-old at the time of the first alleged offense.
McCrary appeared before McBride on Aug. 9, 2019 where bond was set at $250,000. McCrary pleaded not guilty to the charges.
A jury trial was originally scheduled for October 2019, but by Oct. 22, 2019, McCrary pleaded guilty to the charges. Specifically, McCrary pleaded guilty to counts one, two, and 12 of rape. The State dismissed counts three through 11, and 13 through 22.
McCrary must also register as a tier-three sex offender, which is a lifetime tier, with in-person verification every 90 days.
On Dec. 11, 2019, McCrary was sentenced to 21 years in prison, seven years for each of the three counts he pleaded guilty to. As part of the sentencing, post-release control is mandatory for a period of five years.
McBride rules against State’s prosecuting witness
Paul Hicks, 44, was charged with two felony counts of aggravated arson, three felony counts of perjury, and a felony county of insurance fraud.
The alleged arson occurred on June 18, 2015 in the 1900 block of Stumpy Lane in Goshen Township.
Hicks was originally scheduled for trial before McBride for Sept. 16, 2019 through Sept. 27, 2019 at 10 a.m., and then Dec. 9, 2019 through Dec. 20, 2019. Now, he’s scheduled for May 4 through May 15.
Chris Stratton, chief deputy with the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office, said shortly after 1 a.m. on June 18, 2015, two masked individuals entered the home owned by Hicks, stole property, and poured gasoline throughout the home. Then they ignited it, all captured on a home surveillance system.
Stratton said Hicks placed the surveillance system in a fire-protected safe.
“Initially, Hicks attempted to convince detectives that his ex-girlfriend was captured on the surveillance, not only setting the house on fire, but also causing damage to his property months before,” Stratton said. “The investigation revealed that Hicks developed an elaborate scheme to have his own residence set on fire, with the intentions of framing his ex-girlfriend to gain custody of their child and collect insurance money resulting from the fire.”
Stratton said the Sheriff’s Office was working on the case since it happened, in conjunction with the Ohio State Fire Marshal’s Office, and do not believe the ex-girlfriend,
Kelly Weitlauf, had anything to do with it; Hicks is “believed to be the organizer behind the entire incident.”
Miller, on behalf of the State, in the bill of particulars elaborated more on the alleged conspiracy Hicks formulated.
One such step was to orchestrate phone calls to himself for two years leading up to the fire, making it seem as if the ex-girlfriend called him, to establish a motive for the fire.
Hicks also purportedly used a company called That’s My Face to get a mask made that looked like the ex-girlfriend, along with a wig.
One of the individuals who started the fire on June 18, 2015 was wearing the mask and wig, Miller said.
The three perjury charges on March 10, 2016 stem from Hicks allegedly lying to Allstate Insurance about the fake phone calls, and that he had never set fire to another person’s property. However, Miller said in 2011 or 2012, Hicks set fire to his ex-girlfriend’s clothes. The third perjury charge is for telling Allstate that his ex-girlfriend had set a different fire in 2013.
Additionally, the insurance fraud charge stems from Sept. 28, 2015, in which Hicks allegedly provided a proof of loss claim to Allstate in excess of $180,000 related to the June 18, 2015 fire.
“Allstate’s forensic accounting revealed that defendant could not have acquired $180,000 of personal property between his 2013 fire, and the fire in 2015,” Miller said. “The forensic accountant opined that defendant could have only acquired between $11,000 and $33,000 worth of property based on his income and other financial information.”
Hicks posted his $50,000 bond on Jan. 17, 2019, and pleaded not guilty that same day.
McBride in a Dec. 4, 2019 filing, sided with the defense that the prosecuting witness’s testimony in the case, Weitlauf’s, be excluded at trial. Miller sought to use her testimony to demonstrate a motive on the part of Hicks to frame her for the 2013 and 2015 fires.
Denying that he set the fires and suggesting someone else did does not constitute a scheme or a plan, McBride said.
“It is unknown who set the fire in August 2013, which means that there is no proof that the State’s witness, Kelly Weitlauf, did not set the fires,” McBride said. “As a result, the state cannot establish that the defendant’s statement (or more appropriately, conjecture) that Kelly Weitlauf set the fire is false without a full trial as to who set the fire in the case.”
The defense is also worried that the State may have not charged Weitlauf with conveying marijuana into the Clermont County Jail because she was a prosecuting witness.
McBride said, while the State is not obligated to charge anyone with a criminal offense, he is aware that the State “as a matter of general policy seemingly charges every offender who transports drugs, including marijuana, into the County Jail with illegal conveyance of drugs of abuse onto grounds of a detention facility as a felony of the third degree.”
Weitlauf was arrested on misdemeanor criminal damaging and misdemeanor marijuana possession on June 18, 2015, and the charges were dismissed on Oct. 21, 2015.
McBride said the State should make “reasonable inquiries” into whether the lack of charges was made based on considerations of her being a witness.
Wayne Twp. sexual assault case headed to trial
A Clinton County, Ohio man, who was indicted on nine counts of rape and one count of gross sexual imposition, is headed to trial.
Louis Baughn, 53, allegedly sexually assaulted a girl from the ages of eight to 16 in Wayne Township. The alleged offenses occurred from 1996 through 2005. An additional location was in Milford.
The alleged abuse came to light because the now 31-year-old victim came to police with the information. On July 29, 2019, police arrested Baughn, and they said he confessed to the sexual assaults.
Baughn pleaded not guilty to the charges on Aug. 28, 2019.
O’Reilly said Baughn also repeatedly “threatened that if she told, he would kill her, her mother and her father.”
Trial has been set for March 2 through March 6 in front of Clermont County Common Pleas Judge Anthony Brock.