The trial of Charles Cook, who is charged in the 1991 shooting death of Myrtle McGill of Indiana, was supposed to get underway today, but because of a flurry of pretrial rulings and a subsequent appeal of some of those rulings by the District Attorney, it’s now postponed and the case is off the active list. However, there are two other trials scheduled to begin with jury selection on today’s Indiana County Court schedule. For each of them, dozens of charges have been dismissed, with only one offense left to be adjudicated.
44-year-old John Douglas Reed Jr. of Lima, Ohio, and 38-year-old Herbert Hines III of Dayton, Ohio are listed for trial for a chop shop operation involving stolen high-end trailers that they sold on Craigslist to a Brush Valley car dealer. However, a notation on Reed’s criminal docket indicates that he will not be prosecuted and that he has paid $2,500 restitution and a penalty.
Reed was originally charged with 111 offenses and Hines with 91. The charges ranged from multiple counts of theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, conspiracy to both of those offenses, alteration or destruction of a vehicle identification number, disposition of a vehicle with an altered VIN number, and conspiracy to both of those offenses. There are also charges of criminal use of a communication facility, tampering with public records, and more conspiracy filings.
Ruling in both cases, Judge William Martin dismissed all but one charge against both men, criminal use of a communication facility.
Five trailers were sold to the car dealer for $50,000 and he then sold them to customers, unaware that they had been stolen. The car dealer was not charged.