Man gets 90 days for failing to care for mother

NEWARK – Steven Latham told Judge Thomas Marcelain he had not intended to cry during his plea hearing Wednesday morning.

But Latham broke down in tears as he described the promise he had made to his father.

"I promised my dad over his death bed to take care of my mom, and I didn't," he said.

Latham's mother was found by paramedics on the floor of Latham's Indiana Avenue home in August 2014. The living conditions inside the home were "deplorable," Assistant Licking County Prosecutor Brian Waltz said.

The fire department had responded after the victim had fallen out of bed. What fire crews found started an investigation that ended with both Latham and his wife, Laryssa, indicted and the victim in the hospital.

Each Latham was charged with one count of failure to provide for a functionally impaired person, a fourth-degree felony.

Waltz said home was "filthy" with a strong odor of feces and urine. The victim's bed was covered in maggots and feces, as well as the floor. The victim herself had maggots, feces and urine burns over much of her body when she was evaluated at Licking Memorial Hospital, Waltz said.

The Lathams had been using the victim's retirement funds to care for her and pay for the cost of living. The victim had moved in with the Lathams in March 2013 after her home was condemned and had been unable to walk for about three months prior to the August 2014 call to paramedics.

Waltz said many cases judges see involve defendants who hurt themselves by using drugs or act impulsively by robbing a store or assaulting someone. However, this case involved harm inflicted on another person and deserved incarceration as a punishment, he said.

"Just letting her lie in her own filth ... is just horrible," he said. "It says something horrible about the person who would let that happen."

Latham's attorney, Robert Bannerman, asked for community control because Latham had no previous criminal history of significance and Latham had called for the squad.

Marcelain sided with Waltz.

"You fell way below the bar here," Marcelain said.

The judge said Latham could have called at any time for help and his mother had enough income to pay for a nursing home, however, the family used the funds as their own.

Marcelain ordered Latham to serve 90 days in jail and three years of community control. Latham will have to complete 120 hours of community service, maintain habitable living conditions and pay all court costs and fees.

Latham also was ordered to have no contact with the victim, who is living with other family members.

Laryssa Latham was sentenced to 60 days in jail, three years of community control and 250 hours of community service by Judge David Branstool last week. Branstool ordered her to keep the home habitable as part of her probation.