Robinson

        SYCAMORE TOWNSHIP - In a rare homicide in this affluent northeastern Hamilton County suburb, a 32-year-old felon with outstanding arrest warrants has been charged with the slaying of an elderly man whose lawn he mowed.

        Eric Robinson, of the 5200 block of Aster Park Drivein Hamilton, was arrested early Sunday in connection with the murder of Harry Brown, 85, who was found beaten Saturday in his home in the 8800 block of Sandymar Drive.

        Mr. Robinson is being held at the Hamilton County Justice Center and will appear in court Tuesday.

        His mother, Susie Johnson, said Sunday that her son had been doing yard work for the past few months for Mr. Brown.

        The Sycamore man's wife, Ernestine, died Aug. 23 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. Ms. Johnson, a private nurse, had cared for Mrs. Brown for the past year and a half in the couple's two-story home and introduced her son to Mr. Brown.

        Mr. Brown's next-door neighbor, Becky Keating, said the killing devastated neighbors who loved the elderly man. She took a picture of her daughter with Mr. Brown Thursday - he often told her how much he liked to watch out his window as her children left for school.

        “He would've done anything for anybody,” Ms. Keating said. “He had so much life left to give. He just so lovingly cared for his wife.”

        Ms. Johnson said she was horrified to learn of Mr. Brown's death and her son's arrest. The Silverton woman said she couldn't imagine why her son would hurt Mr. Brown, recalling that the senior citizen paid her son extra money on top of his payment for doing yard work and odd jobs around his house.

        “It's a double blow, especially with Mr. Brown losing his wife last Friday and now this,” said Ms. Johnson. “He was a very sweet old man. There wasn't anything he wouldn't do for me. He took me in as part of his family. I had no idea anything like this could happen.”

        When she last spoke with her son, on Saturday afternoon, he asked her to ask Mr. Brown Sunday if he wanted his grass cut this week. She had planned to go to Mr. Brown's home Wednesday to clean house and do laundry.

        “They got along fine,” she said of the two men. “There were no problems at all.”

        But Hamilton County sheriff's patrol officers were called to Mr. Brown's home Saturday after relatives discovered him severely beaten. His worried family went to his house when they couldn't contact him for several hours after talking with him earlier Saturday.

        It was unclear from official reports whether Mr. Brown was found dead at his home or whether he died later. A sheriff's spokesman did not return calls and Sycamore Township paramedics refused to comment.

        After interviewing witnesses, sheriff's detectives apprehended Mr. Robinson at his girlfriend's West Chester Township residence at 2:30 a.m. Sunday.

        He was taken into custody for outstanding charges: joyriding, two traffic offenses and contempt of court from Hamilton County Juvenile Court, according to the Hamilton County Clerk of Court. After detectives interviewed him, they charged him with murder.

        Mr. Robinson has 10 children ages 2 to 13 years, his mother said.

        He served eight months in a state prison on a yearlong sentence after he was convicted of receiving a stolen vehicle in 1991.He also is in violation of his probation from a 1998 drunken driving conviction in Cincinnati, according to the clerk of court's office.

        “I am shocked. He is a good kid,” his mother said. “I had no troubles with him other than him driving under the influence, driving without a license and not paying his child support. That's it.”

        The murder is Sycamore Township's first since June 2001, when Ray Enfinger, who was then 18, deliberately ran his 1987 black Camaro over Timothy Mills, 38, on First Avenue. Mr. Mills' chest was crushed; he lingered in the hospital six weeks before dying.

        Mr. Enfinger was convicted of murder in May and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

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