Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Bombshell Ask From Dad in Ohio 'House of Horrors' Case

Episode Date: July 27, 2026

Gary Siders, Jr., the father of 16 children who were removed from a house in Vinton County, Ohio, is preparing to ask the court to order a mental health evaluation to determine whether he is fit to stand trial. Gary Jr., his wife, Elizabeth Siders, and his parents, Gary Siders Sr. and Christina Siders, have pleaded not guilty to child endangering charges. Prosecutors have said the Siders hid the children. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes over the request and what it could mean in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guests: Dr. Daniel Bober https://www.instagram.com/drdanielbober/Jonna Spilbor https://www.instagram.com/jonna_spilbor/CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Van DinhGuest 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.

So it's really about your present state at the time and if you're able to understand the proceedings in the court. The next twist in the case of 16 children removed from an Ohio home may come from their father who's expected to make a request that could turn the entire case upside down. I'll tell you all about it. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy and this is crime fix. Gary Seiders Jr. has been in jail in Southeast Ohio since June 30th. He's the father of the 16 children that Sheriff's deputies and state agents removed from the house in Vinton County. Sider's attorney is making a move that could bring his case to a screeching halt. You'll recall the conditions in the home were described as disgusting. The children ranging in age from one and a half to 18. All of them were largely off the radar for years, with the exception of a truancy complaint filed in neighboring

Gallia County back in 2021. Gary Scy. Ciders Jr. faces 16 counts of child endangering. His wife, Elizabeth Ciders, faces the same charges. Gary Jr.'s parents. Gary Cider Sr. and Christina Ciders face the same charges. All four have pleaded not guilty. Now the child endangering charge states that the children were abused and that the abuse resulted in serious physical harm. All of the children are in therapeutic foster care. Gary Sr. isn't in great shape. He's the only family member who has been released from jail. He's receiving treatment for a serious medical condition and the prosecutor has said he is not a threat to the public. A competency exam has been ordered for Gary Sr. Because it appeared he didn't really understand what was going on during his first court appearance. Gary Siders Jr.,

his son, is 36 years old and he appears to be in much better shape physically than his father, who's 73 years old. You can see Gary Jr. here with his dad as both were booked into the Southeast Ohio regional jail. Gary Jr. appears to move around just fine. And it didn't appear that he had trouble understanding directions from the corrections officers, although we don't have any audio to go with this video. And at Gary Jr.'s first court appearance, he answered the judge's questions. Do you understand those pleas? How do you plead? Yes, I will enter a not guilty plea for you at this time then, and you can confer with counsel.

So Gary Jr., at least during his initial appearance, asked to speak with a lawyer before entering a plea, and Judge Rogers entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. Gary Jr. at that time, appeared to know enough to ask to speak to a lawyer. That is his right, of course. Now he has a lawyer, and that lawyer is planning to ask the court for a mental health evaluation to determine whether Gary Jr. is fit to stand trial. Attorney R. Lee Roberts has filed a motion asking Judge Rogers to a lawyer. him to file a motion requesting a competency evaluation under seal. That means we wouldn't be able to read it. Defendant's competency to stand trial has been raised, and the documents at issue concern defendants' present mental health condition and requests for psychiatric examination. These documents contain highly sensitive mental health information or information directly

reflecting defendant's psychiatric condition, the public disclosure of which would unnecessarily invade defendant's privacy and compromise the confidentiality of competency-related proceedings. Defendant seeks only limited sealing. Defendant does not seek to seal the entire case record, but only the competency motion, proposed entry that disclose or concern defendants' mental health condition and competency evaluation. No less restrictive alternative would adequately protect the confidentiality interests at issue because the substance of the filing itself concerns defendant's mental condition and need for evaluation. Good cause, therefore, exists to permit the filing of these limited documents under seal. So in that motion asking for leave to seal the motion,

Attorney Roberts makes it clear that he has highly sensitive mental health information related to his client's current mental condition, and he's making it clear that he wants him to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Gary Jr. also faces four misdemeanor counts of public indecency. He's accused of exposing himself to someone on four occasions between May 23rd and May 31st at the home on Omer Street. The complaint says the person Jr. exposed himself to was not a family member. Now, this may be part of the reason, this competency issue, why Gary Jr.'s attorney asked for a continuance in that public indecency case just recently. So what happens during a competency evaluation? I thought we should bring in Dr. Daniel Bober to answer that question for us. He's a

forensic psychiatrist and performs competency evaluations. Thanks for joining us, Dr. Bober. Great to be here. Talk to me if you would a little bit about, first of all, this request. The attorney for Gary Siders Jr. is raising competency as an issue. Does that surprise you? No, it doesn't.

In the state of Ohio, people are presumed to be competence. And competency can be raised by either the prosecution, the defense or the judge themselves. So in this particular case, what we're looking at is the defendant's present state of mind, distinguish that from their state of mind during the commission of the crime, which would be a sanity evaluation. And so we're looking at a two-pronged test. We're looking at if the defendant is able to understand the nature and the objectives of the proceedings against them and they're able to assist in their own defense. So if they are defundant, in either one of those or both, they would be found incompetent.

The judge will more than likely grant this motion, this request from Gary Seidors Jr.'s attorney to file this motion under seal because it contains, in his view, mental health information. So what, you know, we're at a loss here for knowing a lot more about this family, but it's astounding to me that he would have any concrete mental health information available just in the way they were living. And we don't really know if he was receiving any mental health treatment over the last, you know, five years or so. All true.

And it's important to note that even if you are suffering from a psychiatric illness, for example, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, that doesn't per se mean that you will be found incompetent. So it's really about your present state at the time. and if you're able to understand the proceedings in the court and work with your attorney. Some of these skills that we're talking about, for example, would be knowing the roles of the various courtroom participants, knowing the role of the prosecutor and the defense attorney. So, for example, a question we may ask is, can the defense attorney and the prosecutor ever switch places?

We're trying to make sure that the defendant and their constitutional rights are protected, and they're able to participate in the process and do so in a way that's effective for them. You know, earlier we showed a clip of Gary Jr. in court. The attorney or the judge, rather, during the initial appearance, was explaining to him the pleas he could enter, and he asked to talk to a lawyer before doing so. And then the judge, of course, understood that and entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. So that right there shows me. that he understood enough to actually ask for a lawyer. He wanted to consult with an attorney.

What does that tell you about his potential competence here? I don't know if we could draw too many conclusions from that. I mean, he may have known enough to know that he knows what he doesn't know and he needs to ask an attorney. If he were to be found incompetent, then the court looks at, is he incompetent but restorable or not restorable? If he's incompetent but potential he would be committed to a psychiatric hospital or some outpatient facility where they could try to restore his competency and potentially receive involuntary medication. And generally, with serious felonies in the state of Ohio, that could be up to a year. If he's incompetent but not restorable, then at some point he may be committed civilly to a psychiatric hospital if the court believes that he's guilty of the crime by clear and convincing evidence and he's still a danger to the community that he can, could be committed to a psychiatric hospital up till what the maximum sentence would be if he were

to be found guilty of the crime. If Gary Siders Jr. comes into your office or in the alternative, you go to a jail to evaluate Gary Siders Jr. for competency. How does that evaluation take place? How do you assess competency? So it can be done by a clinical interview, and there are also a number of different instruments that can be used as well. But basically, we go down the list and we're looking for these skills that they would need in the courtroom in addition to assisting in their own defense, working with their attorney. For example, if someone is in the courtroom and they suffer from a mental illness or a defect where they can't sit still and they can't maintain composure and work with their attorney, then they're not going to be able to assist in their own defense. So there's

all sorts of things that we look for in these types of evaluations. How long does that take that evaluation? Is that something that can be done, you know, in an afternoon? Does it take a couple of meetings with a defendant? Usually it takes a few hours. It can be done within two or three visits. And sometimes it can be done within a visit, you know, depending on the severity of their illness. If their illness is so severe that it's immediately obvious that this person is not going to be able to work within that time frame, then you know pretty quickly. what you're dealing with. Do defendants ever feign incompetency during an evaluation or fake it or try to exacerbate symptoms? Yes, and a very often psychologist will use instruments to detect that malingering or feigning that you're describing, which is not uncommon and for obvious reasons why they wouldn't want to be found competent to appear in court. So do you think that this will be something that can be done rather quickly, this evaluation?

I think so. I think we could probably get away with this in an afternoon. Do you think that this will be raised for the other defendants? And I'm asking you to speculate a little bit here, but we already have Gary Sider's senior undergoing a competency evaluation. And I think we could all see during his arraignment that he clearly seemed a little out of of it and didn't understand what was going on fully. So I think that's a much different situation. We have an elderly man dealing with a serious medical condition, and we don't know what that is. But this is different. This is a man in his mid-30s who has fathered, as far as we know, 16 children, and he is accused of abusing them and causing, you know, serious physical harm to these children.

That's the charge. Well, it's true. And there's a lot of layers to this, right? So if you're someone who's in the public who's looking at this case, you're looking at the way this guy treated these kids and you're thinking, this guy has to be mentally ill if he would treat these kids this way and he would do it for so long. But again, that doesn't necessarily mean he's incompetent. That is a totally separate skill set from again being found not guilty by reason of insanity. Two completely separate things. One is looking at, his presence of mind during the time that he was committing the crime, and the other is looking at his present state of mind right now. Yeah, and whether he can really assist his attorney with his defense. I also think it's interesting that the attorney wanted to seal the information in the docket, which may have to do with the fact that he was receiving some kind of psychiatric treatment, although it would be hard to imagine in these conditions that he was, perhaps there is information that the attorney wants to protect to keep his information private.

Yeah, I found it interesting that he was forecasting and telling us what his concerns are in the motion to seal and telling the court that. And then now, though, he's like, but we need to keep the information sealed rather than redacting it. So it'll be interesting to see where this goes. Dr. Daniel Bober, thank you so much. Thanks, Ingenet. I want to turn now to Jonas Spillbore. criminal defense attorney and also the host of positively legal on the mk true crime network thank you so much

johnna for coming on thanks for having me i always love to join you angina i love having you join me uh johnna tell me if you would um are you surprised by this request that gary siters junior's attorney plans to make to the court for a competency evaluation okay so in all honesty i'm not surprised because is when you examine the facts of this case. This is like no other case I think we've analyzed in my career. This is a really strange case with the level of neglect that went on with so many children for so long. Now here's the one thing that I think our viewers have to keep in mind.

A competency hearing or a competency determination is not the same as insanity. And a lot of people will confuse the two. So competency, why it makes sense here is because it's to gauge whether or not at the current time. So it doesn't look back really to the history. At the current time, does the defendant understand the proceedings and can he assist in his own defense? So we can probably make a short leap between, well, all right, there was a lot going on here for a long time that probably that indicates this defendant had deficient mental capacities. And now here we are facing

several charges, several felony charges. And does he get it? Does he know where he is? Does he know what a court proceeding is? Does he understand what he is charged with? Does he understand what he's done? And so it does make sense. And I am not surprised by the current motion on his behalf. You know, it doesn't surprise me either. But as you mentioned, and I think you made a very good point, competency is a totally different issue from, you know, an insanity defense. And so basically his attorney is saying, like, essentially, I've met with him. I have concerns that he doesn't understand what's going on. And so now a mental health expert is going to evaluate that and present a report to the court. How common do you think these competency exams are in criminal

cases? Because I know throughout the years, as I've covered cases in court, competency has been raised in a number of cases. Yeah, they are fairly done frequently, I would say, depending on the nature of the case. And like I said, there could be a complete disconnect between what is going on inside the mind of a defendant now versus what was going on at the time crimes were committed. And you have to keep in mind in this case, the crimes began. They must have begun years ago. We've got 16 kids ranging from infant to eight to eight months to 18 years. That's a long time to live in that kind of squalor. And here's the one thing I will tell you that bugged me. I said to myself, well, he must be competent because this family knew how to evade detection.

They knew how to hide. They weren't in school. How were they living? Nobody applied for social services. Do you do that on purpose so that you can live like wild animals? I'm sorry to say it, but that's kind of how they were living. The reports are when the police finally got to this family, a lot of the children couldn't speak.

They couldn't write their name. I mean, this is just years and years of not being raised as we all socially are normally. And it's really, really sad. So in this case, there has to be something going on. So the competency issue is one thing. And if he is found incompetent, that doesn't mean it's, you know, game over. That means they'll work on him to get him competent. And then the case can come back.

His father, Gary, senior, they've raised that issue with his father because he seemed really out of it at his initial court appearance. So I'm wondering, are we going to see this raised in the other cases? Because, John, we're really at the complaint phase of this case where they've waived their preliminary hearings. We haven't even seen an indictment yet. We don't know what charges that will be indicted at grand jury and presented and requested at grand jury. We know it will likely be child endangering. But how many more and who gets indicted? for what? That's still an outstanding question. Big question. And I will say something that I

find really interesting about this. Nothing about this case warms my heart. Do not get me wrong. But here's when I look at it and I say, okay, these are real, this is horrible. The conditions are just, I haven't seen anything like this. But the one little tiny saving grace for this, for the adults in the room is that they were all, they all seem to be living that way, as opposed to. two cases where you have, you know, parents that are, you know, eating, you know, filet mignon, and the kids are the ones who are not are being malnourished and are not getting the care that they need. This whole family was living just like they were paid people and worse. So to me, that might be something that I would hang my hat on if I had to defend any of these family members.

Yeah, it's it's astounding. It's stunning and we're still waiting for more answers because at this point, we certainly have more questions and we do answers. I mean, the only update we have on the children is that they're in therapeutic foster care. We don't even know their exact conditions. And maybe we shouldn't we shouldn't know that as the public because it's health information. It's protected by HIPAA. But it would be nice to receive some sort of update on how the children are doing. And I'm sure. you can agree with that as well. It's going to be such a long road for these kids and probably even worse for the older ones. I think the oldest is 18 years old. And if that child lived, since we have no records, like some of them, so if that child lived his or her entire life without reading, writing arithmetic, without proper nourishment, with bacteria, with feces, with disgust, with not being socialized, that's hard. At least the younger ones, I think, have a little bit of a fighting chance if they get into really good foster care. And there are some really good foster parents out there. So fingers crossed for that. Yeah, fingers crossed for sure. John is Bobor, thank you for your time and your expertise as always.

Thank you. Gary Siders Jr. remains in the Southeast Ohio Regional Jail on a $300,000 bond. His wife, Elizabeth, the mother of the children, and his mother, Christina Lynn Siders, also remain in jail. Their bond is also $300,000. We're going to keep a close eye on this and let you know what happens. That's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.