Officials: 2 on run after shooting death have records
LONDONDERRY - A search stretching across state lines started early Thursday as local sheriff's deputies sought two parolees in connection with the shooting death of a 62-year-old man.
The warrants for aggravated murder are for James D. Nelson II, 36, and Jesse D. Hanes, 38, in connection with the death of Theodore Timmons, according to the Ross County Sheriff's Office.
A third suspect, 24-year-old Whitney Kuhn, of Bourneville, is in the Ross County Jail charged with complicity to aggravated robbery and complicity to aggravated burglary, according to the Sheriff's Office. She was picked up about 12:25 p.m. Wednesday at 11383 U.S. 50 in Bourneville, officials said.
Nelson is described as being 5 feet, 7 inches tall, with brown hair and brown eyes, weighing 165 pounds. Hanes is being described as being 6 feet tall, with blonde hair and green eyes, weighing 195 pounds.
Friend remembers shooting victim as family
Officials said Timmons was found dead Monday night in his home in the 500 block of Poe Run Road after a deputy who lived in the area was notified and called into the sheriff's office.
Both men are considered armed and extremely dangerous, as the sheriff's office said they both have a violent criminal history. Officials said they think the men fled the state after the shooting.
Hanes pleaded guilty to indictment charges of involuntary manslaughter, aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery at age 16, according to Franklin County Common Pleas Court records. The case was bound over from juvenile court in 1995, and charges of aggravated murder, kidnapping and unlawful possession of a dangerous ordnance were dropped against him. The details of that case were not immediately known.
He was in prison until he was 32 years old.
Four years later, in 2014, Hanes was back in court. He pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated robbery and was sentenced to three years in prison with three years of mandatory post-release control. As a result of the plea deal, the second charge of robbery was dropped against him.
Hanes was released from his latest prison sentence in April 2015 and is under parole supervision, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Nelson has multiple convictions out of Licking County Common Pleas Court, including aggravated trafficking in drugs and intimidation of a witness in 1995; burglary in 1997; domestic violence in 2000; and various drug possession charges between 2003 and 2006, including charges of possession of a dangerous ordnance and felony fleeing. In a 2003 case, officials found a Savage Stevens .410 shotgun with a sawed-off stock and live ammunition in his possession, along with two other handguns and two rifles in the home, according to court records.
In 2013, he was convicted in two separate cases where he was charged with possessing methamphetamine.
He was given, and violated, probation on several of the cases, officials reported, but the domestic violence conviction is the only one of those that didn’t result in some type of prison sentence.
Ross County Sheriff George Lavender and Chief Deputy T.J. Hollis said they are aware of the other charges against Hanes and Nelson.
County Coroner John Gabis confirmed to the Gazette that analysis of the body told them Timmons died sometime Sunday and had multiple gunshot wounds.
Lavender thanked his detectives, Chillicothe police, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and the Ohio Adult Parole Authority officials who have been assisting since the investigation began and have worked around the clock.
Anyone with information as to the whereabouts of Nelson or Hanes should call the Ross County Sheriff's Office at 740-773-1185 or any local law enforcement agency.
