By Marie McCain
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Ridder	Boyles

William David Boyles, a Price Hill man accused of plotting to kill a 911 dispatcher with whom he had three children, is expected to forgo a jury trial today in favor of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Mr. Boyles, 27, has worked out a deal to avoid trial on charges of complicity to aggravated murder, illegally possessing a firearm, domestic violence, burglary and felonious assault in the death of his ex-girlfriend, Sara Ridder, sources said. The exact terms of that deal have not been made public.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys have been unwilling to discuss the case publicly.

Mr. Boyles was wearing an electronic monitoring device at the time of Ms. Ridder's April 15 death because of a domestic violence incident in March involving her. In his September indictment, he was accused of getting another person to kill the 24-year-old Westwood woman.

Officials said the device indicated he did not go near Ms. Ridder the day she was killed. Her own personal safety device, and an alert on her phone that called police if he came near, were not activated either.

But her family - including her father, former retired Cincinnati police union president Sgt. Pete Ridder - thought Mr. Boyles was involved.

Ms. Ridder was shot to death inside her Ferguson Road apartment at about 3:30 a.m. that day. Officials believe the murder weapon was a high-powered SKS assault rifle. A bullet was fired from it through her apartment door.

The weapon has yet to be found. Last week, investigators, with the help of Mr. Boyles, searched a site for bullets or shell casings that could have been linked to the weapon but none were found.

In the March incident, officials said Mr. Boyles broke into Ms. Ridder's apartment and assaulted her. He hit his former girlfriend about the head and face and threatened her with a knife, according to court records.

Ms. Ridder, who worked for the city of Cincinnati, subsequently obtained a temporary protection order against Mr. Boyles and he was placed on electronic monitoring to prevent him from going near her while the case was pending in court.

On April 15, the day Ms. Ridder was killed, Mr. Boyles was scheduled to appear in court for a hearing in this case.

He had pleaded guilty in January 2000 to domestic violence for beating Ms. Ridder and served a year in prison.

Earlier this month, Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Steve Martin ordered prosecutors to turn statements Ms. Ridder made before a grand jury about the March domestic incident over to defense attorneys. These same statements would have been used at trial to prove the charges in the March incident.

Ms. Ridder had ended her relationship with Mr. Boyles. But according to family members, she continued to be afraid of him and took extraordinary steps to avoid contact with him.

She changed her phone number frequently, got escorts to her car after work and stayed with relatives. She had returned to her Westwood apartment, after an extended stay with relatives for protection from Mr. Boyles, days before her death.

Besides relatives of both Mr. Boyles and Ms. Ridder, testimony was expected at trial from two felons believed to know something about the case: Daniel Battaglia Jr. and Richard Mansfield.

Mr. Mansfield, 25, an inmate at Noble Correctional Institution in Caldwell, Ohio, is serving three to 15 years in prison for assault and robbery. Officials would not say exactly what his ties are to this case.

But Mr. Battaglia, 28, who was ordered to serve three years in prison last month, has a well-known link to the incident.

He tried to purchase the alleged murder weapon from Mr. Boyles and acknowledged test-firing it a day before Ms. Ridder was killed. On the day Ms. Ridder was killed, prosecutors said, Mr. Battaglia inquired about the gun, but Mr. Boyles allegedly told him, "it was broken, and he couldn't find it."

According to notations on his sentencing order, Mr. Battaglia lied to investigators about the weapon to protect "the perpetrator" of Ms. Ridder's murder and his hesitancy to inform investigators "allowed the possible murder weapon to be destroyed or disposed of seriously hindering (the) investigation."

E-mail mmccain@enquirer.com