Granddaughter: Boyfriend beat ‘nit-picking’ granddad to death with bat

Hope Earnshaw York told a relative in a jail phone call after her arrest in the 2015 murder of her grandfather, William York Sr., that Richard Terrel “freaked out” and started hitting the elderly man with a metal baseball bat during an argument she attributed to “nit picking.”

The investigation file in the death of York Sr., 88, following the beating at his Tipp City home in May 2015 includes various versions of what York and Terrel said happened the day York died and measures taken by the couple to clean up the scene and dispose of the body.

At one point in interviews, Terrel, 37, of Troy, claimed Earnshaw-York, 25, of Tipp City, was the one who murdered her grandfather. The details of Earnshaw-York’s descriptions of events in interviews and recorded calls were consistent with Terrel attacking.

Terrel led investigators to William York Sr.’s remains in a Kentucky creek June 3, 2015. In a plea deal in October, he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, tampering with evidence, gross abuse of a corpse, felonious assault and two counts of receiving stolen property.

Terrel was sentenced Nov. 29 in Miami County Common Pleas Court to 15 years in prison. Earnshaw-York was sentenced to three years after pleading no contest earlier this year to gross abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and three counts of receiving stolen property. Each will receive credit for 547 days served in the county jail since their arrests June 3, 2015, in William York Sr.’s truck in Butler Twp.

A lack of forensic evidence caused by a scrubbing of the crime scene and Earnshaw-York’s refusal to cooperate with prosecutors after initial statements contributed to Terrel’s plea deal, county Prosecutor Tony Kendell said after the sentencings.

At her sentencing Earnshaw-York, who had been charged earlier in 2015 for heroin possession by Tipp City police talked about “drug fueled” actions.

In interviews and phone calls, she said her grandfather, who was called “Pop” by his grandchildren, was helping her move her young son’s toys to the garage May 26, 2015, when the attack occurred. Terrel was in the garage working on his car at the time, according to reports. Earnshaw-York and Terrel had been staying with William York Sr. and he was set in his ways, she said.

She said her grandfather was “nit-picking” including at one point telling Terrel he needed to get a job.

“When Pop turned his back to Rick and grabbed my arms to make a point, Rick freaked out and started hitting him,” Earnshaw-York is quoted as saying in one call June 7, 2105.

Earnshaw-York said her grandfather asked Terrel to stop and called for help. She said she didn’t intervene out of fear for her life; her son, who was inside the house; and the unborn child she was carrying.

A coroner in Boone County, Ky., later ruled William York Sr. died of blunt impact injuries to the head.

The reports detail how Terrel and York cleaned the crime scene, including painting, put the body in bedding and a sleeping bag and placed it in a storage locker on Wagner-Ford Road for a few days. They moved the remains to Kentucky where they were dumped in a creek in Boone County June 2, 2015.

Terrel and Earnshaw York were arrested early the next day in William York Sr.’s missing truck in Butler Twp.

The files include information on Terrel renting the storage locker for a month May 27, 2015, and evidence found in a search of Terrel’s car. The car was found in William York Sr.’s garage by police and sheriff’s deputies investigating reports of his disappearance days before his body was located. Inside the car was shopping list for cleaning items and what police said was a marriage certificate for Terrel and Earnshaw-York.

Items used in the cleaning of the crime scene and other materials were taken to the Montgomery County Solid Waste facility for disposal, reports said.

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