Man gets life sentence for stabbing death of Middletown mother, setting her house on fire
A Middletown man will spend the rest of his life in prison after admitting to stabbing a woman to death and setting her house on fire last month.
Anson Pride, 41, was charged with aggravated murder, felonious assault, aggravated arson, aggravated burglary and tampering with evidence in the Aug. 14 death of death of Jamaka Calhoun on Lind Street.
Today, Pride pleaded guilty in Butler County Common Pleas Court to aggravated murder and aggravated arson, both with specifications that he is a repeat violent offender.
Appeal denied for Butler County woman convicted of killing 3-year-old she was babysitting
The 12th District Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of a Hanover Twp. woman who was found guilty last year of killing a 3-year-old girl she was babysitting.
Lindsay Partin, 37, was convicted of murder, involuntary manslaughter and four counts of child endangering in April 2019. Hannah Wesche, whom Partin babysat, collapsed at Partin’s Shank Road residence on March 8, 2018 and later died.
Budget cuts might close part of Butler County Juvenile Detention Center
Butler County Juvenile Court officials say they would need to close a unit at the detention center in order to comply with the commissioners' directive to cut 7.4% from the budget for this year and 2021.
o meet the budget reduction guidelines they must eliminate two vacant full-time youth leader positions, shutting down one unit — 12 beds for male detainees — in the 48-bed detention center.
AK Steel now part of North America’s largest steel producer: What the deal means
The owner of Butler County’s third-largest private employer has made another billion-dollar blockbuster deal.
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has agreed to buy the U.S. assets of ArcelorMittal for $1.4 billion, six months after it purchased AK Steel Corp for $1.1 billion. AK Steel has 2,421 employees and trails Cincinnati Financial Corporation and GE Aviation in West Chester as the largest private employers in the county.
AK Steel started operations in 1901 in Middletown and always has been a major contributor to the community. The company opened its $36 million AK Steel Research and Innovation Center off Interstate 75 in 2017, 10 years after the headquarters were moved out of Middletown to West Chester.
What the scaled-back Operation Pumpkin will look like in Hamilton next month
Operation Pumpkin will happen this year in Hamilton, but organizers had to scale back some of the usual festivities because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year, from Oct. 8-10, there will be more sculpted pumpkins along High and Main streets than before so “festival-goers can look at them, but also keep a safe distance. They’re not going to be all congested in one area,” said said Paige Hufford, co-chair of the event.
Many businesses downtown along High Street — and this year, Main Street — will have hours that are synchronized with the festival’s time of 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.
AND, for an extra sixth story of the day ...
The ghostly tales behind the ‘Witch’s Tower’ sitting over a southwest Ohio park
Lookout Tower — known also as Frankenstein’s Castle, Witch’s Tower and Patterson’s Castle — was completed in 1941 in what is now Hills & Dales MetroPark.
Strange tales have surrounded Lookout Tower for decades, according to Chris Woodyard, author of more than a dozen books including the Haunted Ohio series.
There have been sightings of eerie figures dancing around a fire and reports of unexplained scorch marks found on the ground.
