2 convicted in unrelated shaken baby cases in 2003 get back-to-back court wins
In 2003, two people were convicted in separate, unrelated murder trials in Franklin County for allegedly shaking a baby based on science that experts are increasingly questioning. Now, they've each had back-to-back court wins.
On Monday, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Brown dismissed the case against 43-year-old Alan J. Butts at the request of county prosecuting attorneys.
Butts was released in 2022 after Brown granted him a new trial on charges stemming from the death of his girlfriend's 2-year-old son, Jaydyn R. Unger, in 2002.
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Brown wrote in his 2022 decision that the "shift in understanding by the medical community (about shaken baby syndrome) raises a strong probability of a different result on retrial.”
According to court records, Franklin County prosecuting attorneys said the judge has admitted testimony of multiple experts "adverse to the state's case," and the child's mother is requesting no further prosecution.
In an unrelated case, county Common Pleas Judge Chris Brown has ruled that Kim Hoover was wrongfully imprisoned for 18 years for a crime she did not commit, making her eligible to collect more than $1 million of compensation from the state of Ohio.
Another judge in 2021 threw out Hoover's murder conviction and prosecutors have dismissed all charges for the 2002 death of Samaisha Benson, a nine-month-old whom Hoover babysat.
The latest court ruling by Judge Brown in January means Hoover, 60, is now eligible to file for compensation in the Ohio Court of Claims. Ohio law allows wrongfully imprisoned individuals to collect $64,000 per year of imprisonment, plus money for lost wages and attorney fees.
Hoover told The Dispatch on Monday that Brown's decision is a declaration of innocence and the culmination of a decades-long battle to clear her name.
"It's what I've been waiting on," Hoover said. "I didn't feel I could get my life back on track until I actually had that. Being charged with something as serious and horrendous as I was charged with, I want people to know the truth. I wanted my name cleared."
Bart Keyes, one of Hoover's attorneys with the Cooper Elliott law firm in Columbus, said that when a conviction is overturned, it doesn't necessarily mean the court is declaring someone's innocence, so this was the "critically important next step."
The judge signed off on the decision, which was agreed to by the attorneys for the Ohio Attorney General's office and Hoover.
The case against Hoover accused her of inflicting head trauma on the infant through shaking and relied heavily on the testimony of medical experts. But the pathologist who conducted the autopsy later recanted their testimony.
Past reporting: Was Columbus woman in prison for 18 years because of bad science?
"Now I have this verdict, the decision from the court that they are legally saying I did not do this. Now I can start planning my life," Hoover said. "When you're a lifer, you can't plan a life."
Hoover currently lives in Westerville with her sister, but she intends to buy a home with her son. She said she's hoping to go back to work, but said she first needs to learn how to use computers, which evolved rapidly while she was imprisoned.
Hoover said she will forever be grateful for the attorneys with the Ohio Public Defender's Wrongful Conviction Project who worked on getting her criminal case overturned.
jlaird@dispatch.com
@LairdWrites
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Franklin County court: woman wrongfully imprisoned for murder
