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Charlie Myers found competent to stand trial
DAYTON — A Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge ruled Wednesday, July 8, that Charlie Myers, accused of killing a Harrison Twp. woman and kidnapping her 4-year-old son, is competent to stand trial.
The ruling by Judge Dennis J. Langer came after two separate competency evaluations. Under Ohio law, a defendant is incompetent to stand trial if, because of his current mental condition, he cannot understand the court proceedings or assist in his defense.
Langer also set hearing dates from September 8 through 11 for the motions to suppress that Myers’ attorneys have filed.
Prosecutors are pursuing the death penalty against Myers. A Montgomery County grand jury indicted him Jan. 15 on eight counts of aggravated murder, including death penalty specifications. In total, The grand jury approved 20 felony counts against Myers in the death of Jenny Nelson, 29, and the kidnapping of her son on Jan. 2.
In addition to the aggravated murder counts, he was indicted on four counts of kidnapping, two counts of aggravated burglary, two counts of aggravated robbery, one count of gross sexual imposition of a child under the age of 13, one count of receiving stolen property, one count of grand theft of a motor vehicle and one count of being a felon in possession of a weapon. All charges include firearms specifications.
Myers, 22, of Columbus, remains in the Montgomery County Jail in lieu of $5 million bond. Myers is hearing-impaired, and Langer has ordered that a sign-language interpreter be present for Myers’ court dates and that Myers be fitted with new hearing aids.
Investigators said Myers, armed with a shotgun, drove on Jan. 2 from Columbus in the Nelson family’s 1999 Honda Accord — reported stolen from an Ohio State University parking garage on Dec. 17.
He had no prior relationship with Nelson’s family, according to Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer, who called it a “random crime.”
The Nelsons had changed their locks the day after the car was stolen, according to prosecutors.
Myers allegedly kicked open the front door of the Nelson home on Redder Avenue, where Nelson was cooking dinner. Her husband was at work at the time. Myers allegedly took Nelson and her son down into the basement, where he tied Nelson to a chair. He then took the boy upstairs and sexually assaulted him, according to prosecutors.
Nelson broke free from her restraints, grabbed a knife and stabbed Myers in the side, prosecutors said. Myers then shot Nelson twice with his shotgun, according to prosecutors.
Myers fled in a car, owned by a Nelson relative, with the boy, two computers and Nelson’s cell phone, investigators said.
Myers left the boy that night at a highway rest stop near the Madison and Clark County county line. The boy, who had no shoes and wasn’t wearing a coat, told a woman there that a man had shot his mother, and deputies found Nelson dead in her home, according to prosecutors.
The Oldsmobile Alero, Myers stole after the shooting, was found Jan. 4 in Columbus, the same day Myers was arrested.
FBI agents tracked Nelson’s cell phone number and determined her cell phone was used twice in Columbus after her death, according to an affidavit for a search warrant filed in Franklin County Municipal Court. One of those calls, made the morning of Jan. 4, was made to Myers’ cell phone.
FBI agents and Franklin County sheriff’s detectives went to Myers’ apartment at 70 McMillen Ave. to determine who called him with the dead woman’s cell phone.
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