BY PHILLIP PINA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
At 41, Raymond Tibbetts has been abusing alcohol and drugs for the better part of 27 years.
It has cost him relationships. It has cost him his freedom. Defense attorneys argued Wednesday that it shouldn't cost him his life. Mr. Tibbetts was convicted Monday of murdering his wife, Judith Sue Crawford Tibbetts, and her elderly landlord, Fred Hicks, on Nov. 5, 1997, in their Over-the-Rhine home. Prosecutors are seeking Mr. Tibbetts' death for his crimes and say the aggravated circumstances of the murders fit the penalty. His wife was beaten with a baseball bat, then stabbed 21 times. Mr. Hicks was stabbed 12 times.
But defense attorney Herbert Freeman told jurors they must consider Mr. Tibbetts' history before recommending a sentence. Mr. Tibbetts was born to parents who abused drugs and alcohol, said Dr. Glenn Weaver, a psychiatrist who examined him. Mr. Tibbetts received little nurturing as a child, was rarely held, and even spent nights tied to a bed. He was taken from his parents at age 4 and was shuffled between foster homes before being admitted to an orphanage. He was "damaged goods" by age 5, Dr. Weaver said. "It's too bad he wasn't treated at that time."
By the time Mr. Tibbetts turned 14, he had turned to drugs and alcohol. He started getting into trouble. Prosecutor Gerry Krumplebeck ran through a list of Mr. Tibbetts' run-ins with the law, including charges of theft, burglary and selling drugs.
He had been in and out of drug treatment programs and at one point had gone an entire year sober. But after an injury at work, when a doctor prescribed him medication he later began to abuse, he fell back to his old ways, Dr. Weaver said.
"He might have made it" were it not for that prescription, Dr. Weaver said.
But Mr. Krumplebeck questioned whether Dr. Weaver even knew what drug the prescription was for. Dr. Weaver didn't. And Mr. Tibbetts must bear responsibility, Mr. Krumplebeck said; after all, he didn't tell the doctor he was a recovering drug abuser.
The sentencing phase of Mr. Tibbetts' trial will resume at 9:15 today in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. The same jury that convicted him will determine whether he gets the death penalty, or life in prison.
