9/7/12 Plea expected in shooting death of 15-year-old girl

  • By Nick Sabo
  • September 7, 2012
  • 387
                        
SUMMARY: Marion Yoder scheduled to plea to negligent homicide Tuesday A Fredericksburg man charged in the accidental shooting death of a 15-year-old girl is expected to plea to a misdemeanor in Holmes County Common Pleas Court. Marion R. Yoder, 28, 4734 Township Road 613, is scheduled to plea Tuesday Sept. 11 to one count of negligent homicide, a first degree misdemeanor, in the death of Rachel Yoder, 15. He faces up to 180 days in jail on the charge. The plea hearing comes four months after the Holmes County Prosecuting Attorney’s office May 30 brought a single count of reckless homicide, a third degree felony, against Marion Yoder. Marion Yoder was charged in Holmes County Municipal court, and the charge was bound over to common pleas court, but never brought before the grand jury. The reckless homicide charge carried up to 36 months in prison. Prosecuting Attorney Steve Knowling Friday Sept. 7 declined comment as to why the charge had been reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor. “I’d rather wait until he pleads before discussing the motivation behind it,” Knowling said. The charge stems from Dec. 15, 2011, when Marion Yoder allegedly discharged a muzzleloading rifle into the air sometime between 10:30 p.m. and 10:45 p.m. The bullet came down at the intersection of County Road 229 and Township Road 614, where 15-year-old Rachel Yoder, of Fredericksburg, was driving a buggy home from a Christmas party. The bullet struck Rachel in the head, and she died Dec. 16 at Akron City Hospital from the injury. The distance from the area where the muzzleloader was fired and the intersection of County Road 229 and Township Road 614 is approximately one mile, according to a ballistics study completed by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation. Marion Yoder allegedly came forward soon after Rachel Yoder’s death. Marion Yoder and Rachel Yoder are not related.


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