Tuesday, February 29, 2000
Ex-deputy pleads not guilty in Silverton killing
BY EARNEST WINSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A former Hamilton County sheriff's deputy pleaded not guilty Monday to murder in a Feb. 19 shooting in Silverton.
Judge John Andrew West set a cash bond at $250,000 for Owen Hobbs, 52, of Sycamore Township during an arraignment Monday in Hamilton County Municipal Court. Mr. Hobbs is being held at the Hamilton County Justice Center.
Silverton police, with the help of Cincinnati homicide investigators, arrested Mr. Hobbs on Saturday morning at his home in the death of Rashawn Berry.
Mr. Berry was shot four times, according to court records. Mr. Berry, who was en route to visit a relative, died outside an apartment building in the 6900 block of Silverton Avenue. He was Silverton's first homicide victim in about 10 years.
Mr. Hobbs started working for the sheriff's department in December 1978 as a corrections officer and was promoted to patrol officer in March 1980. In April 1981, Mr. Hobbs resigned to take a job in California.
He was rehired as a corrections officer by the sheriff's department in August 1981, and was again promoted to patrol officer in May 1983.
Three years later, Mr. Hobbs was fired from the sheriff's department after he was accused of stealing “bait money” used in an internal investigation.
Mr. Hobbs pleaded guilty to one count of theft in office and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
After he left the sheriff's depart ment, Mr. Hobbs worked at a Cincinnati-area grocery, according to the Hamilton County prosecutor's office. Now, he is receiving Social Security disability, said his attorney, Kenneth Lawson.
Police got a break in the case when the wife of a sheriff's deputy watching a TV news programs Friday noticed the resemblance of the man pictured on the screen to her husband's house guest, authorities said. The guest was Mr. Hobbs.
When she showed a videotape she had made of the newscast, Mr. Hobbs denied he was the man in the photograph. He fled, and investigators were notified. About 6 a.m. Saturday, investigators and a local SWAT team surrounded Mr. Hobbs' home in the 10900 block of Brookgreen Court, where he was arrested.
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