By Jim Hannah
The Cincinnati Enquirer

COVINGTON - A state prosecutor announced Friday he intends to seek the death penalty against a Covington man accused of raping and strangling a girl before stuffing her lifeless body under his bed.

"I feel it is an appropriate penalty based on the crime that occurred that day," said Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney Bill Crockett. "The decision was made after reviewing all the facts in the case and speaking with the victim's family members."

Crockett's announcement was made just hours after a grand jury indicted 21-year-old Aaron Dishon for murder and first-degree rape. Although Dishon was originally arraigned on a charge of second-degree rape, a grand jury indicted him on the more serious charge of first-degree rape, which requires prosecutors to prove forcible compulsion for a conviction.

Rape in the first degree is one of the elements that makes an individual charged with murder subject to the death penalty in Kentucky. Had the grand jury only indicted Dishon with second-degree rape, Crockett could not have sought the death penalty.

Other elements that make it possible to seek the death penalty in homicide cases include first-degree arson or robbery.

Dishon is accused of killing Tiffany Rae Farmer, 13, of Independence. Her body was found under the bed of Dishon's upstairs apartment at his grandparents' Covington home on April 28.

Tiffany was spending the weekend at the home of her mother, Julie Estes, who lived a few doors down from Dishon at the time of the killing.

Tiffany lived with her father, Charles Farmer, at her paternal grandmother's home in Independence. She was an eighth-grader at Twenhofel Middle School.

A Covington police detective testified during a preliminary hearing in May that Dishon told detectives that he had consensual sex with Tiffany before killing her. Crockett said on Friday that investigators believe forensic evidence will show it was forcible rape.

Dishon told detectives he began to fight with Tiffany after she confronted him about his drug habits. He then strangled her, police said. Detectives said Dishon piled dirty clothes around his bed to conceal Tiffany's naked body when officers searched the apartment.

There was bruising around Tiffany's throat and scrapes on her hips, according to court records. Detectives recovered Tiffany's clothes in a plastic bag found sitting on Dishon's kitchen floor.

Dishon remains in the Kenton County Detention Center on a $100,000 bond. He is scheduled to be arraigned before Kenton Circuit Judge Patricia Summe on July 7.

E-mail jhannah@enquirer.com