Prosecutor: Meat cleaver beating victim visited, wrote to attacker in jail

HAMILTON — A Fairfield man will spend the next decade in prison, but the woman he slashed 35 times with a meat cleaver said that’s not long enough and she wants the laws changed.

After the sentencing in Butler County Common Pleas Court Wednesday, Jennifer Miller described her “night of terror” on June 2, when Robin Chester, high on cocaine, imprisoned her, hacked her 35 times with a meat cleaver and chopped her left hand nearly in half.

“It was a night of terror, having my hand chopped in half, for hours and you’re watching the blood, I’m looking inside parts of my body I’ve never seen before...,” she said. “That night I incurred 2,000 stitches and staples I went through nine hours of surgery... I wasn’t supposed to live.”

Chester pleaded guilty to attempted murder and Judge Craig Hedric sentenced him to the maximum of 10 years in prison and ordered $197,000 in restitution. It has cost that much for Miller’s numerous surgeries and after care. Miller said a decade is nothing compared to what she has endured and will face in the future.

“I don’t feel 10 years is enough,” she said. “In 10 years am I going to remember everything? Yes. Will I still have emotional problems? Yes I will. Will I still have visible scars? Yes. I may never be able to use my left hand again and I don’t see how you can put a price on that.”

Miller made some remarks after the sentencing that have caused Prosecutor Mike Gmoser and his staff to uncharacteristically challenge the victim they have been fighting for. Miller said the prosecutor’s office didn’t tell her a plea deal was in the works. She continues to maintain that. Gmoser and Assistant Prosecutor Patrick Denier said they met with her before the plea deal was struck and she was pleased her attacker was pleading guilty to the highest offense of attempted murder.

“It was with the knowledge and approval of Ms. Miller,” Denier said.

Gmoser said the plea deal was the most prudent avenue because they weren’t sure what kind of a witness Miller would be, given she had continued to communicate with Chester while he was in jail.

Gmoser said Miller visited Chester and also put money in his jail commissary account. Prosecutors said they also intercepted love letters she sent to him while he was in jail.

Denier said Miller visited her attacker at least four times and there were 108 phone calls from the jail to Miller between June 20 and Sept. 11.

When asked after the hearing if she had contact with Chester, Miller denied any contact other than letters she received from him. Later she recanted, explaining her mother was sitting right next to her and she didn’t want to upset her. As for the visits?

“You just want to hear somebody say they’re sorry,” she said. “If you are a normal human being, it’s really hard to just accept it, something this horrifying? You search for answers.”

She also said she had to change her phone number because Chester wouldn’t stop calling her and the money she deposited in his jail account was his money his grandmother asked her to give back. She remembers sending one letter in which she asked him not to harm himself.

Denier said the tenor of the phone calls did not suggest she was pushing him away, “She was seeking contact,” he said.

Miller said she didn’t mean to “attack” Gmoser’s office. Her main goal is to get sentencing laws changed.

“I am in no way holding the Butler County prosecutor’s office at fault for the sentencing, I hold no ill will over how they handled my case,” she said. “I am upset with state of Ohio laws that are in place for victims of violent crime.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4525 or dcallahan@coxohio.com.

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