BY B.G. GREGG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A Hamilton County jury was deliberating the fate of Raymond Tibbetts late Monday, trying to determine whether he is guilty of killing his wife and her landlord.
Final arguments in the trial were wrapped up Monday morning and the jury began deliberating about 1:30 p.m. At 7 p.m., they were still trying to come to a unanimous decision.
Judith Sue Tibbetts and Fred Hicks were found dead in November in the home they shared in Mohawk, a neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine. Ms. Tibbetts took care of Mr. Hicks, who suffered from emphysema. Mr. Tibbetts, 41, was arrested while seeking psychiatric treatment at a Northern Kentucky hospital a few days after the bodies of Ms. Tibbetts, 42, and Mr. Hicks, 67, were found beaten and stabbed. Mr. Hicks, a retired electrician, was a few weeks from moving to Mason with a daughter when he was killed. Ms. Tibbetts had been married to Mr. Tibbetts for about two months at the time of the killings. Mr. Tibbetts could face the death penalty if convicted of aggravated murder. The jury is allowed to consider the lesser offense of murder, which does not carry a death specification. Aggravated murder means that a defendant purposely and intentionally killed someone, while the lesser charge is applicable if the death was not intentional. That seemed to be the strategy of Mr. Tibbetts' attorneys. His defense during the trial had been that he was so drugged up the night his wife and the landlord were killed that he did not know whether he committed the crimes. He said that the day of the killings, he used prescription drugs, alcohol and crack cocaine.
But he also testified he had used that combination of drugs many times and had been a drug addict and alcoholic most of his life. Prosecutors wondered why on this particular occasion he could not remember anything, and why he was able to supply a correct Social Security number and birth date while seeking help at the hospital, but gave a false name.
"He's used his cocaine crutch all his life," said Gerry Krumplebeck, assistant prosecutor. "He's asking you to completely let him walk out the door and continue his life because crack cocaine did it. Don't let him do that."
Defense attorney Julius Sanks told the jury that Mr. Tibbetts was not alone in guessing about what happened the night of the murders. "We don't know what really happened; they (prosecutors) don't know what happened, they made a guess on what really happened," he said. "You can't guess on this kind of thing."
Mr. Tibbetts cursed and interrupted prosecutors' closing arguments because he did not agree with what they were saying. Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Patrick Dinkelacker warned Mr. Tibbetts he would be removed from the courtroom if his actions continued.
