COVINGTON — The same Kenton County grand jury that declined to indict a woman for shooting an accused child molester in the groin last November returned a 49-count indictment against the man Friday.

        The three-page indictment includes 32 counts of sodomy (second- and third-degree), 10 counts of using a male minor in a sexual performance, five counts of unlawful transaction with a minor, one count of trafficking marijuana within 1,000 yards of a school, and one count of possession of child pornography.

Howell

        Larry Eugene Howell, 40, of Erlanger, a former carnival worker, was originally arrested by Erlanger police and charged with nine counts of sodomy as well as possession of child pornography and marijuana. Investigators said at the time that as many as 30 minors, including one from Cincinnati, could have been molested by Mr. Howell.

        Prosecutor Bill Crockett said that the charges his office brought covered abuse involving eight or nine children, but that many more had been interviewed by investigators.

        “There were a number of children whose names came to light to investigators. Several refused to talk about it and were having an emotionally hard time with it.” Most of the victims — all male — were 14 or 15 at the time of the abuse, the prosecutor said.

        The 49 counts are “far from overkill because we were very conservative in the numbers of charges we brought,” Mr. Crockett said. Fifteen of the 49 charges were in connection with one child, a boy of about 14, Mr. Crockett said.

        But the grand jury did not hear evidence against Mr. Howell connected to the son of the woman who admitted shooting him.

        “I purposefully did not present any evidence as to the child of Mrs. (Jaymie) Hutchins,” to preserve Mr. Howell's rights to a fair trial. “We can present that at a future date,” when a new grand jury has been seated, Mr. Crockett said.

        The same grand jury declined March 1 to indict Mrs. Hutchins on a felony first-degree assault charge in connection with the Nov. 29 shooting. Mrs. Hutchins, 40, said she shot Mr. Howell in the groin because he molested her teen-age son, an accusation Mr. Howell has denied.

        During a recent jailhouse interview with The Enquirer, Mr. Howell said he didn't feel he could get a fair trial in Kenton County where a grand jury could fail to indict the woman who shot him.

        At the time of the shooting, Mr. Howell, who was a friend of the Hutchins family, said he was trying to collect on a $300 bad check Mrs. Hutchins wrote him and was pursuing the matter in Kenton County Court. Mr. Howell said the shooting was about the debt, not about molestation.

        Mrs. Hutchins said Mr. Howell gave her a small loan to pay two credit card bills. The check has since been paid by Mrs. Hutchins' attorney.

        Mr. Howell is being held in an isolation cell, under tightened security, on $250,000 cash bail in the Kenton County Detention Center.

        Mr. Howell, who served 17 years and six months in Kentucky on various burglary charges, said his newly appointed public defender would decide the precise course of his defense.

        If convicted of all the charges in the indictment, Mr. Howell faces an aggregate maximum sentence of 50 years under Kentucky sentencing law, Mr. Crockett said.

        Though the prosecutor's office has a reasonable certainty of a conviction on the counts, it will work toward a plea negotiation to avoid forcing children to testify.

        “We'll try to minimize the negative impact on the children,” Mr. Crockett said.

        Mr. Howell is scheduled to be arraigned March 25.

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