COVINGTON — Child molestation charges against former carnival worker Larry Eugene Howell are mounting as his trial date approaches.

        A Kenton County grand jury returned a 15-count indictment against Mr. Howell on Friday.

Howell

        The new indictment is in addition to the 49-count indictment handed down by a grand jury March 15.

        The latest indictment includes 13 counts of sodomy in the second and third degree, one count of using a minor in a sexual performance, and one count of being a persistent felony offender.

        The original case is scheduled to go to trial in Kenton County Circuit Court on Aug. 27. If convicted of all the charges, Mr. Howell could face up to 50 years in prison.

        Mr. Howell, 41, formerly of Erlanger, has been in an isolation cell, under tightened security, in the Kenton County Detention Center since November 2001.

        He is being held in lieu of $250,000 cash bail.

        Mr. Howell was originally arrested last year by Erlanger Police and accused of molesting eight boys, whom he befriended by allowing them to camp and ride his four-wheeler at his home off Dixie Highway in Erlanger.

        Investigators said at the time that as many as 30 minors, including one from Cincinnati, could have been molested by Mr. Howell.

        He had previously served 17 years and six months in Kentucky on various burglary charges.

        During a jailhouse interview earlier this year, Mr. Howell said he didn't feel he could get a fair trial in Kenton County, where another grand jury declined to indict the woman who admitted to shooting Mr. Howell.

        Jaymie Hutchins of Covington said she shot Mr. Howell in the groin because he molested her teen-age son, an accusation Mr. Howell has denied.

        At the time of the shooting, Mr. Howell said, he was a friend of the Hutchins family and was trying to collect on a $300 bad check Mrs. Hutchins wrote him. He said he was pursuing the matter in Kenton County court.

        Mr. Howell said the shooting was about the debt, not about molestation.

        Commonwealth Attorney Bill Crockett was not available for comment after the indictments were announced Friday afternoon.

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