COLUMBUS GROVE, Ohio - Village Administrator Jeff Vance was a 20-year-old emergency medical technician when 2-year-old Cynthia Collins died in an apartment fire in 1986.
Andy Schroeder, who works at the local supermarket, wasn't even born when the tragedy that would snowball into a 21-year legal battle put the name of this Putnam County village in news stories all over the world.
With a plea bargain tendered, former death-row inmate Kenneth Richey left town yesterday and was expected to leave the country yesterday - flying to Scotland, where he was to be reunited with his mother.
Columbus Grove residents, by and large, said they were happy to see the Richey case closed.
"Just from a public relations point of view, this is not good press for a small town, so from that perspective I am glad it will be over," said Ken Wright, mayor of the village of 2,200 people about seven miles south of Ottawa and 65 miles southwest of Toledo.
"I think people just want it to be done and over with," agreed Alice Maag, who said she was 20-ish and newly married when Richey was arrested in connection with the deadly fire. "Send him back and keep him there."
In a plea agreement that followed two decades of appeals, Richey, 43, was convicted Monday in Putnam County Common Pleas Court of attempted involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment, and breaking and entering stemming from the 1986 incident. While the charges did not implicate him in the fire, some locals still believe he was responsible.
"I'm disappointed in a sense that in my mind he done it and now he's getting off," said Mr. Vance, who as an EMT responded to the 1986 fire at the Old Farm Village apartments on the west edge of Columbus Grove. "Whether he should've been tried for murder and put on death row, I don't know."
Bonnie McAdams said that while what happened was serious, she didn't think Richey deserved the death penalty after his first trial.
"I think he really got a harsh sentence considering I know of two murders where the guys are out [of prison] already," she said. "I really think he served his time."
Richey spent 21 years behind bars before a federal appeals court overturned his conviction for aggravated murder and aggravated arson last summer. The panel determined that his defense attorney had not adequately challenged questionable arson evidence presented at his trial.
The plea agreement, which required him to admit he failed to baby-sit for the little girl as her mother had asked him, came after prosecutors determined they no longer had the scientific evidence and witnesses to prove a case of arson against Richey two decades later.
At the local drugstore, Bonnie Gertsen said even though Richey's story gained attention across the globe, she doesn't hear people talk about it all that much and, she pointed out, no one really knows what happened that night.
"If he sat on death row all that time and never did it, that's terrible," she said.
Mr. Wright, who became mayor last year, owns a greenhouse just across the road from the apartment complex where the fire occurred. It was from his business, K and J Greenhouse, that Richey stole two baskets of petunias - the basis for the breaking and entering charge for which he was convicted.
Mr. Wright said he's been interviewed a number of times by British and U.S. reporters about the case. He said he always had confidence in the local prosecutor and was relieved to know that as part of his plea agreement, Richey will not be able to sue the county or the state for wrongful prosecution.
"Kenneth Richey has gotten so much press - he's really been seeking it and getting all this attention - and we seem to forget a 2-year-old girl died," Mr. Wright said. "It's sad from that standpoint."
Contact Jennifer Feehan at:
jfeehan@theblade.com
or 419-353-5972.
First Published January 9, 2008, 4:09 p.m.