By Sharon Turco
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Most area high school seniors have spent the past few months getting ready for graduation, going to proms and preparing for college.

Cody Moore, an Indian Hill High School senior, went on a vandalism spree - damaging a home under construction, ramming into cars parked in high school parking lots and setting fires, according to prosecutors in Hamilton and Clermont counties.

Now the 18-year-old is in jail.

Most notably, Moore is accused of setting a fire that caused an estimated $2 million in damage to the uncompleted Hawthorne Suites Hotel in Milford on April 13. A firefighter stopped Moore after spotting him at the hotel blaze.

Since then, police departments have tied Moore, who lived with his mother in Indian Hill and his father in Union Township, to numerous acts of vandalism.

"We can't find a motive," said Assistant Clermont County Prosecutor Tony Brock. "He has a complete lack of respect for the property of others."

Tim Murray, 51, who lived across the street from Moore's mother for the past eight years, said it's difficult to believe Moore did what authorities say he did.

Moore was college bound, he said. He was a kid who never caused problems in the neighborhood.

A Hamilton County grand jury indicted Moore on Thursday on 13 charges of vandalism, two charges of breaking and entering, and one charge each of criminal damaging and safecracking.

The charges stem from the early morning hours of March 9. Moore and two younger friends allegedly set out about 1 a.m. in an SUV, tearing through the parking lot of Indian Hill High School, ramming cars, causing more than $10,000 damage.

One friend went home, but Moore and the other teenage boy allegedly continued. They are accused of: breaking into a home under construction on Camargo Road, causing $24,000 damage; ramming cars parked at Cincinnati Country Day School, causing more than $4,000 damage; ramming a dozen cars at Mariemont High School; and breaking into Ferrari's restaurant and stealing $200.

A Clermont County grand jury indicted Moore last month on four charges of aggravated arson, two charges of arson, one charge of criminal damaging, seven charges of breaking and entering, three charges of vandalism and a charge of grand theft of a motor vehicle.

The charges stem from various crimes committed throughout March and April. He is accused of setting a small fire at the hotel on March 23, and then returning on April 13, where a blaze he allegedly set caught and spread throughout the hotel.

Moore is being held in the Clermont County Jail in lieu of $400,000 bond. A pretrial hearing on the charges is scheduled for today.

If convicted on all counts, he faces over 50 years in prison.

E-mail sturco@enquirer.com