Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 3 Big Twists in Accused Ohio Deputy Killer's Case

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

Rodney Hinton Jr. is faces the possibility of the death penalty if he's convicted of the aggravated murder of a sheriff's deputy. Prosecutors in Hamilton County, Ohio said Hinton intentionally drove into a Deputy Larry Henderson in May after watching body-worn camera footage of a police officer from another agency shooting and killing his son. Hinton's lawyer has said he was mentally ill at the time and now a court-ordered evaluation is back with results. Henderson's' widow has also filed a lawsuit in connection to the case. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes the developments in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Stay Informed, Stay Safe – Check Public Records with TruthFinder now at  https://www.truthfinder.com/lccrimefixHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Bill Gallagher  https://x.com/AGCrimLawProducer:Jordan ChaconCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Your first great love story is free when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.ca. slash Wondery. That's audible.ca. slash Wondery. This case, in my mind, is a clear-cut, classic case of a person being mentally ill. Hinton Jr. is accused of murdering a sheriff's deputy running him down with his car, but his lawyer says he shouldn't be eligible for the death penalty because of his mental illness. It's one major development in the case, and I'm going to go through them for you.

Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Prosecutors in Ohio are pursuing the death penalty against Rodney Hinton Jr. for what they've called the premeditated murder of a sheriff's deputy, but a relatively new state statute could throw a wrench into those plans. Hinton's case, it made national news earlier this year when he was accused of intentionally driving his car into Hamilton County Sheriff's Deputy Larry Henderson to murder him. It happened outside of the graduation ceremony for the University of Cincinnati in May. Henderson was working in off-duty detail directing traffic, standing on a concrete area near a crosswalk when the prosecutor said Hinton drove straight toward him.

So this is a street view where you see the intersection. This is the stop line that's painted there where people have to stop. This is the unused middle lane, which up here is designated as a left turn only lane. These little plastic things are called delineators. They're just there to keep people from swerving into oncoming traffic. Here, this light pole, that's where Deputy Henderson was standing. A lot of the traffic enforcement people say that's a prime spot to stand because it has a tree for shade. there, there's no place to turn, there's no signal there, he's just in that unused lane. Because he was up a little bit of a hill, he was at a higher elevation, and he could look

down and see what was going on in front of him, and he could see Deputy Henderson working that traffic light. At 1.05 p.m., Hinton floors the vehicle, crossing into the opposing traffic lanes, and drives directly at Deputy Henderson and hitting him. He never veers off course. He never slows down. While he was paused in that unused center lane, there was traffic coming.

He didn't make his move until the oncoming traffic had cleared, and he had an open road ahead of them. Now, what makes this case kind of different and strange is the fact that Rodney Hinton Jr.'s son, Ryan Hinton, had been shot and killed a day earlier by a Cincinnati police officer, someone from a different agency than Deputy Henderson. Hinton drove into Deputy Henderson, Hinton and his family were shown video of the incident that led to Ryan Hinton being shot by a Cincinnati police officer the day before as he and his friends were stopped in a stolen car. This is the other officer, the one who

fires the shot. This is his body camera as he approaches the scene. This is the firearm that was recovered at the scene after the individual was shot. This is what he had in his hand while the officers were chasing him. It's just a photo of it here at criminalistics. Remember I told you he fell on the concrete and the officer said that they heard the metal hit the ground? there are three spots on here where this gun has scratches on it. We believe those occurred when he hit the ground with the firearm. Knowing about the people you let into your life can be really, really important.

Our partner, Truthfinder, it is the most powerful public record search services we use to do researches on our stories here on law and crime. Talk about a useful resource. You plug in a name and you get an address, criminal history, and let me just say, this can give you some peace of mind. TruthFinder is one of the largest public record search services in the United States. And with a paid subscription service, you get access to unlimited reports of almost anyone. And that includes looking up registered sex offenders who live near you.

You might even be shocked to look up yourself and see what's out there. Stay informed. Stay safe. Check public records with Truthfinder now at www. truthfinder.com slash LC CrimeFix. Now, after watching that video, Rodney Hinton and his family were understandably upset. Rodney Hinton left the police department, went home and took a nap, and then went with his family to pick up his car. After that is when he's accused of purposely running into Deputy Henderson.

After being treated at a hospital, Hinton was taken to the police department. I'm going to put this hand on a cough. All right, I'm going to put this other hand in a cuff. I'm going to double lock them, okay? I did you ever take the first around. You're going to pinch them. All right. Well, sir.

I think I did. Yeah. This one. This one. This one. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Are you sure? Good. Okay. Shall I have anything? You don't have anything? You don't want to put it. You need a button. Got it.

John, you're good. You're good. No, I was like, you're good. I don't know. I'm going to be able to I don't know. I'm going to be able to I don't know. I'm going to

I don't know what I'm going to be. I don't know what I'm going to be. I don't know. I don't know. We're going to be able to The last time. Later, Hinton arrived at the jail in the neighboring county. All right, we want to swing your legs out, kind of opposite of what we did, getting in.

Good. I got him. Got him. Yeah. I don't get to try to three. Now, we don't know what? Rodney Hinton told detectives, if anything, but his lawyer has filed a motion to suppress statements. You want to hold yourself up there? I'm going to ask you some questions. You have a same as a medical medical health issue that's a need of a decision.

Now, even at Hinton's first court appearance, his behavior, it was a little. little odd. Rodney Hinton Jr. was indicted on aggravated murder charges. Andy pleaded not guilty. The prosecutor announced that she would be seeking the death penalty against him. Hinton's attorney made it clear that his client's mental health would be an issue even before trial. I had a death penalty case about nine months ago in Claremont County. It was a home jury. So I had a death penalty case. where we utilize the defense of not guilty by reason of insanity successfully about 10 or 15 years ago.

So it's a case. How do you sum this one up compared to maybe summed a one two thousand? This case, in my mind, is a clear-cut, classic case of a person being mentally ill at the time they committed the offense. More so than some other cases that I've had

where the mental status of the person committing a crime was at issue this young man had a mental condition and defect before any of this happened, and it was triggered by the video of his son being killed. This is a classic mental illness case, more so than the other cases that I've successfully resolved. What was the mental illness that he had that you think created this? You will see that in the future? I knew it created it, and that will be forthcoming. Attorney Clyde Bennett told reporters back in May that he believed. believed that watching that body-worn camera footage of his son being shot by police

triggered some type of mental health episode in Rodney Hinton that he had yet to come out of. When I say he's coming out of it, that's based on my observation of it, the way he presented to me, body language, his demeanor. He appears to be better now than he was when I first met with him. So the residual effect of the episode that he experienced, it seems to have lessened over the days. I think I wouldn't say he's fully competent, but as the days go on, I think he gets more competent every day. So I think he's better now mentally than he was when I first met with him a week ago.

So in the state of Ohio, a defendant can't be eligible for the death penalty if he has been diagnosed with a serious mental illness. That law took effect back in 2021. those serious mental health illnesses include schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, and delusional disorder. The statute says the disorder had to impair the defendant's ability to conform the person's conduct to the requirements of the law or impair their ability to appreciate the nature, consequences, or wrongfulness of the person's conduct. Hinton's attorney asked for an evaluation and the judge appointed a psychology to do that

evaluation. Hinton's attorney announced on Facebook. From the beginning of this case, I repeatedly and emphatically stated that Rodney Hinton was mentally ill at the time of the offense and did not understand the wrongfulness of his conduct. Now an independent, neutral, objective opinion from a court-appointed certified forensic psychologist has confirmed this fact. The doctor opined that Mr. Hinton had a combination of serious mental illnesses, bipolar disorder and psychosis, At the time he committed the offense and those serious mental illnesses significantly impaired, his ability to exercise rational judgment. In 2021, Governor Mike DeWine spearheaded a mental health reform a new law that exempted the seriously mentally ill from the death penalty, the first state in our great country to do so. That Ohio law mandates that a person who has bipolar disorder slash psychosis that significantly impairs their ability to exercise rational judgment at the time of

committing murder cannot be charged with the death penalty. In light of the thorough, reliable report from an objective neutral forensic psychologist, the prosecution should not continue to try to kill Mr. Hinton. The prosecution should forego its right to seek an opposing opinion and dismiss the death penalty specification in this case. Now the prosecutor has asked for another evaluation and that request has been granted in Hinton's trial, which has been scheduled for January has not been delayed. So to discuss this finding by this psychologist and this motion to strike the death penalty essentially is what they want to do, I want to bring in Bill Gallagher. He is a defense attorney in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has defended 13 death penalty cases.

Bill, this case is right there in your backyard. This is a high profile big deal case. You got a guy, Rodney Hinton Jr., accused of intentionally. murdering a cop. But his attorney, Clyde Bennett, has been saying since the beginning, hey, my guy's got some mental health issues. So this is step one, it looks like, in his prong, you know, in his like multi-prong strategy to defend this guy. The serious mental illness statute, you know, it's a fairly new statute when it comes to the death penalty in the state of Ohio. So what is your feeling about what this court-appointed psychologist has found thus far? Well, I think what's important to know is that the burden at this point is going to be a lot

different than it is at trial. So if you were going to try and say that I was mentally ill or I was incapable of forming the required intent for murder, you'd have a larger burden. At this point, it's not as necessary. All this is he proves by a preponderance of the evidence that his client suffers from a serious mental illness. They're claiming what he suffers from is bipolar disorder. That's one of the enumerated mental health conditions that could disqualify you from the death penalty. And Clyde Bennett is saying that this court-appointed expert found, indeed, that Rodney Hinton, Jr. does have bipolar disorder. And that is one of these illnesses, serious mental illnesses, that under the statute in Ohio,

you can't be put to death if you have one of those. That's according to the statute. So it seems pretty clear cut, but it may not be so clear cut because the prosecution wants another evaluation. Right. And that's only fair. I mean, that would happen in any instance if you were claiming insanity or you were claiming your incompetence. You'd be entitled to the other side would be entitled to its own expert review of those same circumstances and that report.

But, you know, now this psychologist that takes over for the state is going to have Dr. O'Donnell's report to look at. So this is not the doctor that Clyde Bennett asked to be appointed. The court, Judge Lubbers, appointed this Jenny O'Donnell, this psychologist, and she evaluated Rodney Hinton, Jr., looked at the medical records, what have you, and made this finding that yes, indeed he has bipolar disorder. So what do you do if you're the prosecutor and let's say this expert, I know I'm asking you to speculate a little bit, they come back, the second expert and they say, yeah, he does, he does have bipolar disorder. I mean, do you just go to the court and agree to drop the death penalty or what do you do? Right. What would happen? What would happen is it can either be a contested hearing where the prosecutor still won't concede it or they can just agree that the death penalty to no longer. be imposed and you would move forward to a trial or a resolution based on the charge of aggravated murder, which still carries the possibility of life without parole. So I'm wondering then

too, you know, Clyde Bennett sounds like he wants to, at least in the statements he made when Rodney Hitton Jr. was first, you know, prosecuted, first charged with this crime. He made it sound like he thought it wasn't just maybe the serious mental illness stuff that was at play here, but potentially, and not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, I'm not guilty by reason of insanity. So is that a possibility that you can say, okay, yeah, somebody, we get the death penalty removed as a possible punishment because of this bipolar disorder? And then you put on an insanity defense, too? You can try and put on insanity defense. There's no doubt about that.

You are not guilty by reason, insanity is still put you in some serious consequences. But there's absolutely no doubt that you can still do that if you can find an expert to say that he met the legal definition of insanity, which is much different than meeting the legal definition of just suffering from a serious mental defect at the time that the crime occurred. Let's say you do get found not guilty by reason of insanity. What are the consequences for that? Like you get locked up in a mental health institution? you can spend the rest of your natural life still.

You can still serve out the sentence, but you would do so in a state mental health institution as opposed to just the normal state prison system. You know, there are other issues at play here, too. I mean, he's asking to suppress any statements that this guy made, this Rodney Hinton, Jr., if he made any, saying that they would have been involuntary. Let's say if he was bipolar and off his meds and stuff. you know he did say some things to the cops does that make those statements involuntary not necessarily there are a lot of mentally ill people who still walk around with most of their

faculties and the question will become did you understand you Miranda warnings and did you knowingly and intelligently waived those by answering the police officer's questions what could come into question is whether there's any allegation that um because of his mental health condition that the police maybe took advantage of that i'm not saying that saying that occurred, but that could be an argument that he was much more vulnerable to suggestion or much more vulnerable to some levels of persuasion that the police department might not work on a normal adult. That would be probably for another expert as opposed to just arguing as a lawyer. What do you think about, you know, this whole argument that, you know, he had watched

this video, he went home, he took a nap, and then he's supposed to meet his family somewhere, and then he goes down to the UC area and he just plows into this, Deputy Henderson. My God, it's just horrible what happened. What do you make of this argument that, you know, he had watched this footage, he was upset. I mean, it doesn't, I don't know, is that a mitigating, is that any of that mitigating at all? I guess this sort of depends on whether or not there, you know, everyone experiences trauma in different ways. and what might really bother you might bother someone else much differently. I don't know seeing your son killed or murdered or however you viewed it at the time.

I don't know what kind of trauma that could have caused on him. And I think I'd leave it to mental health people to say whether or not something else triggered it. I guess you get sort of equated to the sort of post-traumatic stress disorder, right, where a prior trauma triggers something within your brain. The trauma could in fact be seeing his son killed. And it doesn't matter that he took a nap or it doesn't matter he's going to other places. If there was a trigger to that trauma that caused him at that moment to act differently than he normally would. Well, it'll be interesting to see how this all pans out.

I mean, this has pushed the trial back. So, you know, these death penalty trials, they can take a long time to get to trial in some instances. So it'll see what, it'll be interesting to see what this second expert comes back with. And if they go to that hearing. Absolutely. I'll have to just wait. Bill Gallagher, thank you so much. Any time.

In another development in this case, over the summer, Larry Henderson's widow filed a lawsuit to stop online fundraisers that seek to raise money for Rodney Hinton Jr.'s defense. She's suing for more than $25,000. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for joining me. I'll see you back here next time.

Thank you.