Saturday, January 30, 1999
Suspect resists return from Texas
Teen girlfriend facing a delinquency charge
BY SHEILA McLAUGHLIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON — A 35-year-old Trenton man, captured after four months on the run with his teen-age girlfriend, is fighting his return to Ohio, his local lawyer said Friday.
James H. “Jay” Smith is due in a Texas courtroom Monday or Tuesday for a hearing to determine whether he will be extradited to Butler County. There, he faces a string of charges involving his relationship with 16-year-old Bessie Lou McCoy of Mill ville.
“I talked to him this morning. At this point, he's not waiving (extradition proceedings). But that all can be reviewed,” said Lyn Cunningham, Mr. Smith's lawyer in Hamilton.
If Mr. Smith does not agree to extradition, Butler County authorities would have to seek a warrant from the Texas governor ordering the transfer to Ohio.
Mr. Smith, a divorced father of three, and Bessie, a former Ross High School student, were arrested Wednesday after police in Alvin, Texas, saw Mr. Smith driving through town in his brown Ford pickup.
Bessie was found in a mobile home park where the two had lived for the past month in the town of 19,200 about 25 miles south of Houston.
Bessie and Mr. Smith were traced to Alvin after Bessie placed a phone call Monday to an aunt who lives in Hamilton.
Police said Mr. Smith was working as a maintenance man at the mobile home park. Detectives think the two also had lived in Pasadena, Texas, closer to Houston, before moving to Alvin.
The two disappeared Sept. 21, after Bessie's parents involved police in their attempts to stop the sexual relationship between Mr. Smith and their daughter.
Butler County sheriff's Sgt. Mike Thacker and De tective J.C. Kristanoff, of the prosecutor's Butler County Child Assault Task Force, are to travel to Alvin on Monday to investigate the case there. They are to bring Bessie back to Ohio on Wednesday.
She will be placed in Butler County Juvenile Detention upon her return because she faces a delinquency count of being incorrigible, which means her parents can't control her, Detective Kristanoff said.
Following his capture, Mr. Smith was charged with an additional felony count in Butler County for interfering with Bessie's custody.
A Butler County grand jury indicted him in October on six misdemeanor counts of contributing to the unruliness of a child and a felony charge of corruption of a minor.
He also was being sought on two felony charges for failing to pay $30,000 in support for his three children who live in Lexington, Ky.
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