The
Hocking County, Ohio, prosecutor’s office requested an extension
October 16th in the matter of charges brought against two 16-year-old
males in the alleged homicide of a 44-year-old Chilicothe woman at
Hocking Hills State Park.
Unnamed
because they are youths, the pair is alleged to have caused a
74-pound, six-foot-long log to strike Victoria Schafer, who was
standing about 75 feet below and on a staircase at Old Man’s Cave,
located within 2,356-acre Hocking Hills State Park.
Schafer
was in the process of photographing several other youths for their
graduation pictures when she was struck and killed instantly by the
log, investigators with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and
the Hocking County Sheriffs Department said.
Both
youths are from Logan, also in Hocking County. They each were charged
October 10th with reckless homicide. The charge is a third-degree
felony and carries with it a fine of up to $10,000, jail time of up
to five years, or both.
During
a Hocking County Juvenile Court appearance the afternoon of October
11th, the two defendants each entered a plea of “denial” to the
charges. In Ohio’s juvenile court system, youths do not enter pleas
of guilty/not-guilty.
Subsequently,
the two youths were remanded to the Multi-County Juvenile Detention
Center in Lancaster where they remain.
An
additional hearing is scheduled – tentatively set for October 22nd
– in the Hocking County Juvenile Court though the Hocking County prosecutor’s office requested an
extension, says assistant prosecutor Jorden Meadows.
“We
are still collecting evidence pending (possible) further charges,”
Meadows said.
Meadows
says she also intends to discuss with Hocking County prosecutor
Benjamin E. Fickel the possibility of transfering the charges to
adult criminal court jurisdiction rather than keeping them in the
juvenile court system.
That
discussion is likely to occur within the next couple of days, Meadows
said.
JFrischk4@gmail.com
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
No comments:
Post a Comment