Police: Suspect in 5-year-old Hamilton homicide can’t be charged because he’s dead
Credit: Contributed WCPO
Credit: Contributed WCPO
Five years after the shooting death of Christopher “C.J.” Sandle Jr. just three days after his 20th birthday, Hamilton police say they have enough evidence to charge a suspect — if he were still alive.
Sandle was shot in his bedroom on Millville Avenue on the morning of Jan. 13, 2016. His mother, Rebecca Sandle, and his 9-year-old sister were at home at the time of the slaying.
His homicide has remained classified as “unsolved,” despite a reward of $10,000 offered for information leading to the conviction of suspects in the homicide.
911 caller: ‘A bunch of little kids’ responsible for drive-by shooting in Middletown
Three 911 calls were made to Middletown police dispatchers after a woman said she was shot once in the chest Tuesday night in the 400 block of Curtis Street
One caller told the dispatcher: “She just got shot.”
A few second later, the caller said: “Please hurry.”
The caller said the shots may have been fired from a brown mini-van that was seen traveling down Curtis toward Yankee Road, according to the 911 recordings reviewed by the Journal-News.
Fairfield’s swimming pool to be managed by private company: How that will save money
The city of Fairfield will have a private company manage its pool for at least the 2021 season, but the city still has the final say in its operations.
Fairfield City Council approved a three-year contract with SwimSafe Pool Management, which has an opt-out clause after the first year, this week. It will cost the city $121,500 in the first year. The second and third years of the contract are valued at $121,000 each. There will be about a projected $50,000 savings for the city, but Fairfield Parks and Recreation Director Tiphanie Howard “the focus wasn’t about saving money.”
“We started looking into this prior to the COVID pandemic,” Howard said. “While we’re really good at what we do, we really considered going into a partnership with an organization that does this day in and day out.”
Hamilton studio for artists with disabilities gets new focus with local operator
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
InsideOut Studio, where people with disabilities create art they sell to support themselves, has a new operator that will help give it more of a local focus, officials said.
The studio no longer is run by Easterseals serving Greater Cincinnati. Stephen Smith, who had been InsideOut’s education coordinator, created the nonprofit Inspiration Studios last year, and it started overseeing the program this month. He’s now the CEO of Inspiration Studios.
The name of InsideOut will be unchanged, as will its address of 140 High St., where it has been since the fall of 2015. The Easterseals employees who worked there have remained with InsideOut, as have employees who were with Butler County Board of Developmental Disabilities.
Middletown distillery still making the hand sanitizer that helped it through coronavirus limitations
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
A local distillery is continuing to manufacture hand sanitizer months after changing its operations to produce the needed commodity that became more important after the coronavirus pandemic began.
Mike and Debbie Dranschak, owners of White Dog Distillery at 1357 Central Ave. in downtown Middletown, found a way to keep their business afloat during the pandemic after the state ordered most services at bars last March by making the sanitizer.
The Dranschaks followed the formula specifications from the World Health Organization and started bottling hand sanitizer that contains ethyl alcohol, pure glycerin, hydrogen peroxide and water.
AND, for an extra sixth story of the day ...
PHOTOS: Inside the giant new indoor growing facility from 80 Acres in Hamilton
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
The new 80 Acres Farms, powered by Infinite Acres, held a ribbon cutting Wednesday, January 13, 2021 in Hamilton. The new $30-million-plus, 62,000-square-foot vertical farming building will be able to “grow more than 10-million healthy servings of fresh food each and every year,” according to 80 Acres Farms CEO and co-founder Mike Zelkind.