HAMILTON COUNTY — The trial date for the man accused of hitting and killing a Hamilton County Sheriff’s Deputy with his car in May has been delayed.
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Rodney Hinton Jr. is facing aggravated murder, murder, and felonious assault charges for the death of Deputy Larry Henderson, according to a previous News Center 7 report.
A day before Henderson was killed, Hinton Jr.’s son Ryan was shot and killed by Cincinnati Police Officers.
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The following day, Hinton Jr. watched body camera footage of the shooting, and then allegedly ran down Henderson with his car while he was working a traffic detail for the University of Cincinnati’s commencement.
In December, Hinton’s attorneys changed his plea from not guilty to not guilty by reason of insanity.
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Now, an evaluation to determine if he is not guilty by reason of insanity has pushed the initial trial date of April 6 back.
In court on Thursday, Hinton’s attorney said the evaluation’s report is expected to come in by March 18, our media partner WCPO-9 TV reported.
The prosecution said that getting the “most crucial part of the defense’s case” just three weeks before the initial trial date “hampers” the state.
“The defendant is obviously entitled to a fair trial, but equally, the state is entitled to a fair trial,” prosecutors said.
According to WCPO-9, prosecutors said this could change how they prepare for the jury trial and witness testimony.
“To have 21 days to review and analyze a report, prepare cross-examination, redo jury instructions, redo longforms and literally reevaluate how we present our case to put the state in the best position possible and to give Larry Henderson and his family the trial they equally deserve, just like the defense, really is at this point patently unfair to us,” prosecutors said.
The judge asked both the defense and the prosecution to say how long they would need.
Hinton’s lawyer said 60 days, but the prosecution said they wanted to wait until they received the evaluation.
The judge agreed that March 18 is the deadline for determining a trial date, WCPO-9 reported.
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