BY JANICE MORSE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MIDDLETOWN -- A 10-year-old girl noticed the spot where her grandmother had been sleeping was empty. So she went looking for her -- and instead found a ski-masked intruder armed with a baseball bat.
"He grabbed me by the wrist and threw me into the extra room," said the Madison Township girl, who was staying with her grandmother on Winona Drive early Monday. "He told me not to cry, but I did anyways."
After demanding -- and getting -- the grandmother's purse, the intruder swung the bat at 63-year-old Ruby Hollon. "I saw him hit her because I peeked out the door," the girl told a police dispatcher.
Authorities and Ms. Hollon are praising the girl, whose name is being withheld at her mother's request, for taking charge and going to call 911 from a neighbor's house despite Ms. Hollon's fears that her attacker might still be lurking.
"She kept begging me to let her go get help. I was kind of blacking out, and she said, "I'm going -- now,' " said Ms. Hollon, who was listed in serious condition Tuesday at Middletown Regional Hospital. "The next thing I knew, the police were there with her. She has stood by my side like a regular guardian angel."
Darrell Gentry, 18, of 206 S. First St. in Trenton was arrested Monday afternoon in the attack. He is to appear today in Middletown Municipal Court on charges of attempted murder, aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery.
He also is expected to face charges in about seven other burglaries in the Riverside Trailer Park, said Middletown Police Lt. Dan Owens. No one was thought to have been injured in those burglaries, Lt. Owens said.
Asked why the suspect would have attacked Ms. Hollon, Lt. Owens said, "He (Mr. Gentry) tells us it's because she stood up, he told her to sit down -- and she didn't sit down fast enough."
Events leading to the attack on Ms. Hollon began around 2 a.m., she and her granddaughter estimate.
They had been in bed when Ms. Hollon was awakened by the sound of someone knocking on the front door.
When Ms. Hollon opened the door, the masked man -- wearing camouflage clothing and gloves -- forced his way in, saying he was looking for a man he wanted to kill.
He rummaged through drawers and even a purse the little girl played with, a police report says.
He also ripped the telephone cord out of the wall and told the little girl that he would hurt her if she told the police what happened. After the intruder fled with Ms. Hollon's purse, the young girl came out of the back room.
"I walked into the living room and saw something lying on the ground. It was my grandmother," she said.
