NEWS

Case of body in car ‘beyond strange’

Todd Hill, and Lou Whitmire
Ohio

BUCYRUS — During an arraignment in a case that both a judge and an attorney described as “beyond strange,” a Lakewood woman pulled over Monday with a dead man in her vehicle pleaded guilty Tuesday to OVI in exchange for no felony charges being leveled against her in relation to the incident.

Kristle Kendle

“OK,” Crawford County Municipal Court Judge Shane Leuthold said incredulously. “I can only deal with the charges before me.”

But the judge still opted to set a bond of $50,000 for Kristle Kendall, 34, extremely high for an OVI, and put off sentencing until a date to be determined later so further investigation into the case can be conducted.

“This is not a typical OVI case,” the judge said. “You have a woman who’s not only eight months pregnant but is driving around with a dead body in the car for at least 30 minutes. I will need more information before sentencing.”

On Tuesday, Lt. Craig Smith, spokesman for the Ohio Highway Patrol in Columbus, said the patrol would continue to investigate the incident, particularly the death of Michael Collins Jr., 34, of Lakewood.

Collins was found dead in the front passenger’s seat of a Jeep Liberty driven by Kendall during a traffic stop early Monday in Crawford County.

Collins died of a gunshot wound to the head, said Lt. Michael Vinson, commander of the Bucyrus post of the Ohio Highway Patrol.

“We’re not calling it a suicide. We’re not calling it a homicide,” Vinson said.

Kendall said the man committed suicide.

At Tuesday’s arraignment, Kendall’s attorney, Adam Stone, said she had been kidnapped by Collins, who he described as her best friend.

Collins was wanted in connection with a burglary at a residence in Lakewood, where he was alleged to have taken his father’s gun, and with a 9 p.m. Sunday armed robbery at a convenience store and gas station in Strongsville.

According to the Strongsville police report, the aggravated robbery occurred at 9:08 p.m. Sunday at Shell Tru North on Royalton Road. A clerk told police that he had been robbed at gunpoint. The man then reportedly left the scene headed toward Interstate 71.

“The gun recovered is the one from the burglary at the residence,” Vinson said.

“It goes beyond the word ‘strange,’ ” Stone said of the case as he sought a personal recognizance bond for Kendall at Tuesday’s arraignment.

“She was abducted, kidnapped, and watched her best friend take his life. Did she make the best decision? No. But she has a minimal record, and this is truly an anomaly of what her behavior is on a daily basis. She does not pose a flight risk.”

But Leuthold disagreed.

“You hit the nail on the head. Strange does not begin to paint the picture here,” he told Stone. “Being kidnapped by your best friend seems strange. Prior to this robbery, at least one of them fled and drove around the state to elude capture, or who knows what. They were on their way to somewhere. If they had not been pulled over, I don’t know where this ends up.”

Stone said Kendall didn’t know where she was and was “looking for a hospital for the dead body sitting beside her.”

Leuthold questioned why she didn’t just call 911.

“There’s something strange about this OVI,” he said.

After her bond was set at $50,000, Kendall, who appeared on a video feed from the Crawford County jail to have a large bruise under her left eye, fought back tears.

County Prosecutor Matthew Crall said his office has been in coordination with the investigating agencies to determine whether any felony charges could be filed against Kendall.

“And I double-checked in case they forgot to tell me something,” he said. “We have no information that would lead to any felony charges. We’ve received no communication to put a holder on her, and we wouldn’t file a felony charge against her at this point anyway. We need facts and we need evidence.”

At 1:02 a.m. Monday, troopers received a call from a person who said Collins was dead and in a vehicle that had exited I-71 at U.S. 30 and was thought to be heading west. The caller told authorities that the driver believed she was in the Ontario area at a Panera Bread parking lot when the shooting occurred, Vinson said.

A trooper spotted the vehicle on Crawford County Road 100 about a mile south of Ohio 19 at 2:12 a.m.

A Crawford County Sheriff’s Office deputy and two troopers from the Bucyrus post stopped the vehicle.

“We are working with a broad time frame of when this occurred,” Vinson said of the shooting death.

He said it took a long time to track the vehicle down because the person driving was turning back and going different ways on multiple routes. At one point, the vehicle was believed to have been in Upper Sandusky.

Collins’ body is being sent to the Lucas County Coroner’s Office, where an autopsy will be performed.

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