Warrington: brother kills brother
veryrich
information on the younger brother's "hazy" past: he's changed schools
more than once, including as recently as April. The parents are
divorced. Until a few months ago, the mother was a stay-at-home.
veryrich
http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050526/NEWS01/505260358
911 call and a grim discovery
Hyde Park teen in court June 2
By Tony Cook
Post staff reporter
Johnny Warrington accompanied his mother last week to Hamilton County
Juvenile Court - where she is a public defender - to job shadow her as
part of a senior year project at Summit Country Day School.
On Wednesday, Johnny's younger brother, Andrew, was in Hamilton County
Juvenile Court - accused of beating his 17-year-old brother to death
with a baseball bat.
"Obviously, she is quite distraught as one would expect her to be,"
said Marcy Warrington's new boss in the public defender's office, Terry
Weber. "She is taking it, I assume, as any parent would."
Andrew Warrington, 16, was returned to Hamilton County's Juvenile
Detention Center in Mount Auburn after his Wednesday arraignment. He is
set to appear before presiding Juvenile Court Judge Tom Lipps at a June
2 mandatory bindover hearing, where his case could be transferred to
adult court.
The prosecutor's office formally asked that the matter be moved to
adult court. Under state law, all first-and second-degree felonies
involving 16-year-old defendants go to adult court if probable cause is
found, said Juvenile Court Administrator Mark Reed.
At Wednesday's hearing, defense attorney Thomas Heekin Jr. filed a
motion for medical treatment, which would allow the family to seek a
psychological evaluation of Andrew.
Marcy Warrington is an attorney who has been working at the Public
Defender's office for less than three months, according to Weber. Prior
to that, he said, she was a stay-at-home mom who volunteered for the
Children's Law Center in Covington.
"She is a sweet lady," Weber said. "We were just getting to know her.
Everyone is kind of in a state of shock. This would blow anyone away."
In a statement Wednesday, Warrington family spokesman Peter McGarey
described Andrew as "a wonderful and loving child who has the love and
full support of his entire family." He said the family hopes the legal
system is allowed to run its course.
Marcy Warrington is divorced from John Warrington Jr., the boys'
father. Relatives at his Hyde Park home refused to comment Wednesday.
The crime came to light Tuesday afternoon after a young man walked into
Hyde Park Square and washed his bloodstained hands in the Kilgour
Fountain there.
He told two iron workers eating lunch on the square that there was a
teen beaten to death with a baseball bat inside a house in the 3400
block of Berry Avenue, five blocks west on Erie Avenue. One of the
workers called 911, then walked the teen across the street to the Hyde
Park firehouse.
Officers who went to investigate at the Berry Avenue address found
Johnny Warrington lying dead in the front room of his mother's home.
The workers who encountered the bloodstained youth refused to talk to
reporters, but their co-worker, Tony Pribble, relayed what happened.
"They were over there eating at the square on one of the benches and
this guy walked up, and he was all bloody. So one of them called 911 on
a cell phone," Pribble said.
"They said he just had a blank look. ... They said he just stood around
there peacefully next to the guys while they were calling 911. And he
knew the guys were calling 911, too."
Police received this 911 call just before 1 p.m.:
Dispatcher: What's your emergency?
Caller: Yeah, I'm in Hyde Park, in Hyde Park Square. There's a young
guy who says there's someone killed in a house here. He's got blood all
over him. He said that they were beat to death with a baseball bat...
Dispatcher: Is he hurt or is it someone else's blood?
Caller: It's somebody else.
Dispatcher: Does he know the person who assaulted this person he is
saying is dead?
Caller: (aside) Do you know who did it? No... He said that the person
who was hit is laying in a house here close by. He just needs to get a
cop here...
Dispatcher: We'll get an officer out there.
A man who lives in a third-floor apartment with a bird's eye view of
the square described Wednesday what he saw at the fountain.
"I saw the kid walking from the square with two construction workers on
either side," he said. "What looked so weird was that he had no shoes
on and like shorts and a shirt, and it was cool yesterday. ... But they
were kind of escorting him. They were blatantly helping him to the
firehouse."
Firefighters at the firehouse at Erie and Michigan avenues declined to
comment.
Sources said the disheveled teen first told officers that someone had
broken into the family home and killed his brother.
Employees at The Echo, a diner near the square, said John Warrington
and his sons - whom they called "real nice people" - frequented the
restaurant. Mark Easton, a cashier at the diner who said he attended
Indian Hill High School with the father, said he saw John Warrington
and another man eating at The Echo between 9:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. the
morning of Johnny's death.
Andrew Warrington's background remains hazy. While his two brothers
attended Summit, a private school, he attended Withrow University High
School, a Cincinnati public school.
CPS spokeswoman Janet Walsh said he had only attended Withrow since
mid-April. Walsh said she thought he had attended a school in Columbus
prior to transferring to Withrow.
Summit spokeswoman Jennifer Pierson said she didn't know if Andrew had
ever attended Summit.
"Our understanding is he attended several schools," she said.
A school chaplain, a faculty grief counselor and a classroom were set
aside for students at Summit who were mourning, Pierson said.
"Everyone here is still in shock. We're kind of still taking it all
in," said Andrew Dober, a junior at Summit who played lacrosse with
Johnny Warrington. "He was an all-around good kid - no enemies - he fit
in here."
Pierson said students and administrators plan to hold a memorial
service for Johnny at the school's chapel today at 4 p.m.
At Withrow, Walsh, principal Sharon Johnson and other school staff
ushered students away from reporters on a public sidewalk after classes
Wednesday.
"Don't talk to any reporters," Johnson told students.
But several did speak, describing Andrew Warrington as quiet and shy
during his month there.
"He was quiet, you wouldn't even know he was there. He kept to
himself," said Chris Furr, a freshman at Withrow.
Several Cincinnati police cruisers were on Berry Avenue about 8:40 a.m.
Tuesday. But Cincinnati police said Wednesday officers were responding
to an Erie Avenue break-in unrelated to the Warrington killing.
Post staff reporters Kimball Perry, Shelly Whitehead, Roy Wood and Troy
Lyle also contributed to this story.