Robert Bethel and sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for two murders
According to court documents Robert Bethel and Jeremy Chavis would murder James Reynolds and Shannon Hawk. Bethel was worried that James Reynolds was going to testify at court against a fellow gangmember
Robert Bethel would be convicted and sentenced to death
Jeremy Chavis was sentenced to two thirty year terms
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Where Is Robert Bethel Now
Robert Bethel is incarcerated at Chillicothe Correctional Institution
Robert Bethel Case
¶4}Bethel belonged to the “Crips” street gang. In 1995, a fellow gang member and closely known associate of Bethel’s shot another man during a burglary. James Reynolds witnessed that shooting and told others about it. The shooter was later indicted for aggravated murder, with death specifications, and Reynolds was the only material witness against him. {¶5}According to Bethel’s roommate, also a fellow Crips gang member, Bethel was concerned about Reynolds, and expressed intentions to get rid of him. On June 13, 1996, Bethel and another one of his other roommates, also a Crips gang member, purchased 12-gauge shotguns from a gun store in Obetz, Ohio. Thirteen days later,
No. 07AP-810 3 Reynolds and his girlfriend, Shannon Hawks, were found dead—shot 14 times collectively, with 9mm and 12-gauge shotgun ammunition. Their bodies were discovered in a field owned by the grandfather of Bethel’s roommates. {¶6}A few weeks later, Bethel told one of his roommates that he and another roommate shot Reynolds and Hawks, using a 9mm handgun and a shotgun. Bethel later confessed his part in the murders to his girlfriend. About six months after the murders, police executed a search warrant on the trailer where Bethel and his roommates lived, but apparently did not find enough evidence to file charges. {¶7}Years later, the roommate to whom Bethel had previously confessed was indicted on unrelated federal firearms charges. In an effort to work out a deal with the feds, he offered information implicating Bethel in the Reynolds-Hawks murders. Police eventually arrested Bethel on November 6, 2000, and a grand jury indicted him for two counts of aggravated murder, both with death specifications
https://law.justia.com/cases/ohio/tenth-district-court-of-appeals/2008/2008-ohio-2697.html