Hamilton County Coroner Lakshmi Sammarco says there's no evidence the victim of a high-profile 1994 murder had a disease prosecutors cited in dismissing charges against her alleged killer years after he won the right to a new trial.
A jury convicted Elwood Jones in 1996 for the murder of 67-year-old Rhoda Nathan at a hotel in Blue Ash where he worked and where she was a guest. Evidence used to convict Jones included a bacterial infection in an injury on his hand — alleged to be from hitting Nathan in the mouth — and a necklace police said they found in his toolbox similar to one owned by Nathan.
Jones was sentenced to death for the murder and spent 27 years on death row. Hamilton County Judge Wende Cross ordered he get a new trial in 2021 after multiple appeals and the disclosure of new evidence. Jones was released from prison pending a new trial. On Dec. 12, Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich announced her office wouldn't pursue charges against Jones again.
Pillich said allegations of roughly 4,000 pages of withheld evidence and prosecutorial misconduct played a role in her decision not to retry Jones. She also said new evidence had come to light — including claims Nathan had hepatitis B that would have very likely infected Jones when he got the bacterial infection in question — led her office to dismiss the case against him after months of review.
But on Dec. 22, Hamilton County Coroner Lakshmi Sammarco issued a statement clarifying that Nathan's remains did not test positive for hepatitis B. She said the autopsy report's indication Nathan had the disease was likely due to "a transcription error."
"In an effort to corroborate the outside laboratory findings, one of the current pathologists in our office was asked to review the microscopic findings detailed in Ms. Nathan’s autopsy report," Sammarco said in the statement. "No inflammation of the liver associated with hepatitis was indicated. Therefore, the information we have reviewed demonstrates that Ms. Nathan did not have hepatitis B."
Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters, who held the office when Jones was convicted, called the decision "sickening."
"I think no one's talking for Rhoda Nathan, and she was a wonderful lady who was senselessly murdered at one of our hotels here, and everyone forgets about her," Deters told WVXU news partner WCPO.
WVXU has reached out to the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office for a statement. This article will be updated if we receive a response.
Read more: