BY PHILLIP PINA and TANYA ALBERT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Raymond Tibbetts should die for his crimes, says the jury that convicted him of killing his wife and her landlord.
The families of his victims cried, and they hugged. But it was hard to express joy, they said. The death sentence recommended by the jury Thursday will not bring back their loved ones.
The same jury found Mr. Tibbetts, 41, guilty on Monday of aggravated murder in the Nov. 5, 1997, deaths of Judith Sue Crawford Tibbetts, his wife of five weeks, and Fred Hicks, the elderly landlord she took care of. They were found dead in their apartment in the Mohawk section of Over-the-Rhine. Mrs. Tibbetts was beaten with a baseball bat, then stabbed 21 times. Mr. Hicks was stabbed 12 times.
"This has devastated my whole family," said Joan Hicks, the sister of Mr. Hicks.
They have lost a caring man who always made an effort to help others, said Ms. Hicks, surrounded by relatives after the sentencing. Many had sat through the two-week trial that spelled out the brutal murders.
"After what he did to my father, he deserves the death sentence," said Debra Hicks White, Mr. Hicks' daughter.
After interrupting prosecutor statements during the sentencing phase and being led from the courtroom Thursday morning, Mr. Tibbetts asked not to be in the courtroom when the sentence was read. His lawyers broke the news to him Thursday afternoon at the Hamilton County Justice Center.
Before the outbreak, he pleaded with jurors to save his life. "I'm very sorry about what happened," he said in a steady voice. "If I did it, I don't know. And that's the truth. . . . To this day, I still don't remember that day."
He blamed his problems on a bad childhood and the stranglehold of addictions to drugs and alcohol. His attorney, Herbert Freeman told jurors Mr. Tibbetts' past should outweigh the aggravated circumstances connected to the killings.
But assistant county prosecutor Mark Piepmeier called Mr. Tibbetts a con man who didn't encounter any more problems in life than the average person.
The jury said prosecutors proved the circumstances of Mr. Hicks' death warranted the death sentence, but not in Mrs. Tibbetts' death, for which they recommended life in prison with no parole. Judge Patrick Dinkelacker scheduled an Aug. 27 sentencing date.
