12-2-2001 Kentucky:COVINGTON, Ky. -- A woman accused of shooting a man who allegedly molested her son will not go to trial.
On Friday, a grand jury in Kenton County decided not to indict the woman, who shot Larry Howell in November, WLWT Eyewitness News 5 reported.
WLWT is not naming the woman to protect the identity of her son.
The woman was charged with one count of first-degree assault, and assault under extreme emotional disturbance.
Prosecutors said Friday that they will not present the charges a second time to the grand jury, which effectively ends the case against her.
Howell, of Erlanger, Ky., has been charged with nine counts of sodomy.
Investigators believe that Howell molested as many as 20 boys between the ages of 12 and 15. Howell allegedly lured children to his home in Erlanger with gifts and money in exchange for sexual favors, WLWT reported.
Two days after his Nov. 30, 2001, arrest, the woman shot Howell in the groin, just moments after he was released from jail on bond. She admitted to the shooting in court, WLWT reported.
Howell spent several days in the hospital, then returned to jail.
After Howell was shot, parents in the community rallied their support behind the woman and raised money to bail her out of prison. ..more.. by Eyewitness News 5
Kenton Co. still wants mother prosecuted in groin shooting
3-6-2003 Kentucky:
LOUISVILLE - The Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney's Office would like to see Jaymie Hutchins prosecuted for shooting Larry Howell in the groin, but a special prosecutor assigned to the case more than a year ago said he will make the final call.
A grand jury has already refused to indict the Covington woman in the shooting of Howell, a man she claimed abused her young son.
A spokesman for Jefferson County Commonwealth's Attorney David Stengel in Louisville said his office will not re-present the Hutchins case to a grand jury unless someone comes forward with credible, new evidence.
The state attorney general's office assigned Stengel's office to the Covington case after it was ruled Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney Bill Crockett had a conflict in the case. He was already prosecuting the man on drug and molestation charges and did not want to be in a position where he was trying both an accused child molester and the mother of an alleged victim at the same time.
One reason Crockett's office said it would like to revisit the case is that all 14 charges that accused Larry Howell, 42, of Erlanger of molesting Hutchins' son, now 14, have been dropped.
The charges were dropped in an agreement in which Howell pleaded guilty to 45 other charges, most of which involved molestation of seven other boys.
Howell was sentenced to 35 years in prison on those charges.
He had already been sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of three drug crimes involving youth in a separate court case late last year.
Howell has consistently claimed Hutchins shot him in the groin over money she owned him. He denied ever molesting her child.
The shooting, which took place outside the Covington police station in a customized van, made Hutchins a minor celebrity.
Supporters donated her $10,000 bond to keep her out of jail until the charges against her were dismissed.
Crockett was out of town on vacation Wednesday and it was unclear what new evidence he might forward to Stengel. ..News Source.. by Jim Hannah, The Cincinnati Enquirer
'Vigilante mom' dies after heart trouble diagnosis
6-13-2010 Kentucky:
LUDLOW - The Northern Kentucky woman known nationally as "the vigilante mom" for shooting an acquaintance in the groin after he was accused of molesting her teenaged son and dozens of other young boys has died.
Jaymie Lynn Hutchins died Tuesday at her Ludlow home, just months after she was diagnosed with a heart condition.
She was 48.
In November 2001, the mother of five made national headlines when she confronted accused child molester Larry Howell in a parking lot near the Covington Police Station.
After the shooting, Hutchins told The Enquirer that she shot Howell in the abdomen and groin because her son told her that Howell had repeatedly molested him during an 18-month period.
"I shot him where it counts," Hutchins told The Enquirer the morning after the shooting.
"(WLW talk-show host) Bill Cunningham called her the vigilante mom, and the nickname stuck like glue," said Hutchins' husband, Tim Hutchins Sr.
"Jaymie always said, 'I don't care what they call me.' She was just happy that she got somebody off the streets who was hurting a lot of kids."
Howell is a former carnival worker and ex-convict who was accused of luring underprivileged boys to his Erlanger home with gifts and food before molesting them.
He is now serving time in the Kentucky State Reformatory for providing drugs to youths and sexually abusing minors.
He will be eligible for parole in September 2011.
"After the shooting, Jaymie got hundreds of letters of support from all over the United States," her husband said. "Some of them were from inmates. A lot of them were from grown-ups who'd been molested when they were kids."
The shooting that took place outside the Covington police station made Hutchins a minor celebrity.
Supporters, who included a retired judge, donated her $10,000 bond to keep Hutchins out of jail until the charges against her were dismissed.
Mr. Hutchins said it wasn't unusual for him to come home from work and find a house full of children.
"Jaymie supported other people's kids when they didn't have a place to go," her husband said.
"She was the kind of person who'd give anybody the shirt off her back and not think twice about it."
A former secretary with the Internal Revenue Service, Jaymie Hutchins was diagnosed with heart problems about six to eight months ago.
She died in her sleep Tuesday, her husband said.
Hutchins also is survived by three grown children, two sons at home and five grandchildren.
Visitation will be 10 a.m. to noon Tuesday, with services following at Serenity Funeral Care in Covington.
Burial will be in Ravens Creek Cemetery in Corinth. ..Source.. by Cindy Schroeder
1 comment:
Of course what the child molester did was wrong. And he should go to jail for a long time for it. But in this country we have laws and to not have the grand jury send the woman who shot him on to be tried is also wrong. This promotes people takeing the law into their own hands.
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