Man pleads not guilty in 1976 Wood County murder

5/8/2008

BOWLING GREEN A former Dunbridge, Ohio man charged in a 1976 murder in Wood County pleaded not guilty Thursday afternoon in Wood County Common Pleas Court.

Larry E. Scott, 53, was arraigned before Judge Alan Mayberry on a charge of aggravated murder in the strangulation of Mary Burns Brooks, 37, of Toledo. Ms. Brooks s nude body was found at the Lake Township Cemetery March 14, 1976 by a woman who had gone there to put flowers on a grave.

Prosecutors said DNA testing linked Scott to the victim.

Scott is being held at the Wood County jail where he was transferred last month from a Michigan prison where he was serving a life sentence for the Aug. 7, 1976 stabbing death of Florence Hemminger, 26, of Weston, Ohio. Ms. Hemminger was kidnapped in Bowling Green and found dead on the side of a road in Bedford Township.

Judge Mayberry Thursday set Scott s bond at $100,000 and scheduled a pretrial for Aug. 22.