By Sharon Coolidge
The Cincinnati Enquirer

James "Patrick" Dick thought a woman was going to kill his child, prompting a rage in which he went to her Sharonville home and shot her and her friend to death.

Except that the 34-year-old Arlington Heights man doesn't have children. It was a delusion, said his attorneys, Perry Ancona and William Welsh.

They said Dick has spent 15 years in and out of hospitals for treatment of paranoid schizophrenia and wasn't taking his medicine at the time of the Sept. 23 killings.

Details of Dick's behavior emerged Monday during a hearing in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. Dick pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated murder - all with a death penalty specification - and other charges.

After hearing about his mental condition, Judges Melba Marsh, Charles J. Kubicki Jr. and Thomas H. Crush spared Dick's life and instead sent him to prison for life with no chance of parole.

Family members of the victims, Sandra Ross and Carl Shivener, asked the judges to impose the life sentence, because they don't believe in the death penalty.

"(My family and I) are aware that his mental illness substantially contributed to the actions that resulted in the death of my father," Carla Shivener, Carl Shivener's daughter, wrote to the court.

Dick and Ross dated on and off in the six months leading up to the killings, but were not together when he shot her.

Dick moved out of Ross' home Sept. 2, and the following day he called and threatened to split her head open, Sharonville Police Detective Darian Bookman said.

Dick didn't cause more problems until Sept. 23, the detective said. At 9 that night, Dick called and made more threats.

"No one took them seriously," Bookman said.

Two friends were visiting Ross when Dick broke in to her home an hour later wielding a sawed-off shotgun, police said.

Shivener, 57, of Oakley, grabbed a baseball bat, but Dick shot him twice and then fired a fatal shot into Ross' neck. James Diesel, 48, of Sharonville, hid in another room until Dick left.

Before leaving, Dick fired a shot into Shivener's lower back. He died on the way to the hospital.

Dick was arrested the next night.

During the hearing, Dick apologized to the families. "I'm not a mean person," he said. "I should have been taking my medicine, but I wasn't. I apologize to the families of Miss Ross and Mr. Shivener."

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E-mail scoolidge@enquirer.com