By Sheila McLaughlin
The Cincinnati Enquirer

SHARONVILLE - When Sandra Ross received a death threat from her ex-lover Tuesday night, police said, she assembled two male friends and a baseball bat for protection at her residence on Plainfield Road.

Dick

It wasn't enough.

Wednesday, officers in helicopters, on foot and in patrol cars scoured the quaint neighborhood and nearby woods for James "Pat" Dick. The Arlington Heights man was suspected of barging into Ross' home with a shotgun and killing the 31-year-old divorced mother of three and a friend, Carl Shivener, 57, of Oakley.

On Wednesday evening, Dick was arrested in Arlington Heights and was being questioned by police.

An arrest warrant charged Dick, 34, with two counts of aggravated murder and a single count of burglary in the 10:30 p.m. incident on Tuesday.

A second friend, identified as James Diesel, 48, of Sharonville, hid in another room until Dick left. He was able to tell officers what happened, along with neighbors who saw Dick leave the house carrying a shotgun, Chief Michael Schappa said.

Schappa said that Ross had called Shivener and Diesel to her house "to sit with her" after Dick called and threatened her.

"He stated he was going to come over and kill her," Schappa described the threat.

Dick's 1989 Chevrolet Corsica was found a couple of streets away on Wenbrook Drive about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. Schappa said that Dick lived with Ross this year, but that there were no domestic incidents reported at the house.

Ross did not call police Tuesday to report Dick's threat, he said. Her daughters, ages 5, 8, and 11, were with their father in Indiana, Schappa said.

Neighbors along the street of neat homes near Ross' residence said they didn't know Ross or the men involved. No one wanted to speak publicly, saying they were afraid because at the time, Dick was on the loose. One woman said she was leaving to stay with a relative until he was caught.

Jan Beard woke up at 7:15 a.m. Wednesday to see 10 police cars in front of her house on Wenbrook, where Dick's car was found under a streetlight. Officers searched backyards and garden sheds and questioned residents about what they may have seen.

"That was a little unnerving," Beard said.

Police in Symmes Township and Loveland had been alerted earlier in the day to keep a close eye out for Dick because his parents and friends live there, Loveland Chief Dennis Rees said.

Rees said police are familiar with Dick because he had been in trouble before. According to Hamilton County Court records, his criminal record dates to at least 1995, when he was placed on probation for weapons charges and ordered to undergo psychiatric counseling and drug testing.

Most recently, Dick was convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence and placed on probation for six months last March for beating his father and threatening to stab him after an argument.

Dick also spent eight months in jail three years ago for having sex with an underage girl and for burglarizing a Loveland home, records show.

E-mail smclaughlin@enquirer.com