Ohio News

CINCINNATI (AP) — A sheriff's office says an inmate was found unresponsive in a jail in Cincinnati and has died.

The Hamilton County Sheriff's Office said in a release Monday that 33-year-old Cornelius Howell was found unresponsive around 9:30 p.m. Sunday by corrections officers doing rounds at the Hamilton County Justice Center.

The release said Howell had been involved in an altercation around 5 p.m. with another inmate and was evaluated in the medical unit for a cut lip. The release says Howell wasn't combative and deputies didn't use force on him.

Authorities say Howell showed no immediate signs of trauma or injury. The county coroner's office is determining the cause of death.

The Cincinnati man had been in the jail on misdemeanor charges since Dec. 2.

The makers of Jimmy Dean HEAT 'n SERVE sausage links have recalled almost 30,000 pounds because of reports of pieces of metal found inside.

The ready-to-eat links were produced and packaged on August 4 and have a use-by-date of January 31st.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) says the company received five complaints of customers finding metal pieces in the sausage links.

FSIS recommends customers who have this product either throw it away or return it to where you bought it.

Consumers with questions about the recall can contact the Jimmy Dean customer service line at (855) 382-3101.

COLUMBUS - Columbus Police SWAT officers captured a suspect wanted in an August 2018 murder.

Officers took Lonzo Al Doughty into custody at home on Worthington-Galena Road on Monday.

Back in September, detectives filed murder charges against Doughty for the August 20 murder of 31-year-old Julian Higgins. Police found Higgins' body lying in a parking lot on Wedgewood Drive. He had been shot. Medical officials pronounced him dead at the scene.

In addition to arresting Doughty, police charged 29-year-old Torri Doughty with obstructing justice.

Columbus City Council voted unanimously to approve a ticket tax to help improve the city's art community and help make needed repairs to the publicly owned Nationwide Arena.

The tax will be 5 percent on all event tickets. That's lower than the original proposal of 7 percent. The tax will be applied on event tickets that range from Nationwide Arena, The Arnold Classic, COSI and more.

The Greater Columbus Arts Council was the driving force behind the proposal.

Artists like Lawrence Lemon, a choreographer who founded Ohio Black Dance, supports the measure.

"We have some of the top-notch artists throughout the world here in our city and sometimes we are not able to find the funding to support ourselves. We know this will be a big game changer for us," he said.

Columbus ticket tax compares to Louisville with a ticket tax of 6 percent, Cleveland at 8 percent and Nashville with 9.25 percent.

There are two funds where the money will go.

The first is called the Creativity Fund: Which will allow more artists to apply for grants to help pay for everything from supplies, to rent space and more.

The second is the Stability Fund: This money will help pay for needed repairs at Nationwide Arena, The county says the Arena will need a new roof and new scoreboard in the next 5-years.

The city estimates the ticket tax will generate $6 million a year. But not everyone thinks this tax is a great idea.

"The greater Columbus arts council already receives $7 million from the bed tax, how much is enough? their shortfall is the private sector, not the public sector," Bret Adams with the Anti-Tax Coalition said.

Opponents of the ticket tax will have a month after Monday's vote to collect 8,900 signatures to either force council to repeal the ordinance or place the issue on the ballot.

Former FBI Director James Comey called on Americans to "get off the couch" and vote to deny President Trump re-election in 2020, and he referred to Trump's presidency as an "attack on our values."

"I can't see what the end of the Mueller effort looks like, I don't know what form it'll take, I don't know what they'll conclude....I can tell you that all of us should use every breath we have to make sure that the lying stops on January 20, 2021," Comey said at a Sunday night event at the 92nd Street Y in New York City.

"I hope that Donald Trump is not removed from office by impeachment because it would let the country off the hook," Comey told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace, who was moderating the event. "And it would drive into the fabric of our nation a third of the people believing there was a coup. And we need a moment of inflection, where we all get off the couch and say, 'That is not who we are,' and in a landslide rid ourselves of this attack on our values." The former FBI director suggested that impeachment might "short-circuit" the political process, and "we wouldn't have the moment of clarity we need in this country."

That said, Comey continued, if both the House and Senate were to vote to impeach and remove Mr. Trump from office, "that's fine."

The comments are the latest in the back-and-forth between Trump and the FBI director he fired in May 2017. Trump has been lashing out at Comey on Twitter, ramping up his attacks and calling him "Leakin' James Comey." "Leakin' James Comey must have set a record for who lied the most to Congress in one day. His Friday testimony was so untruthful!," the president tweeted Sunday.

Comey on Friday appeared before a closed-door session of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees, where lawmakers questioned him on a range of topics. According to the transcript released Saturday, Comey did not respond to some questions related to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. He also denied a tweeted assertion by Trump that claimed Comey and Mueller were "best friends."

WACO, Texas (AP) — A Texas judge on Monday accepted a plea deal allowing a former Baylor University student accused of raping a woman at a fraternity party to avoid serving jail time, marking at least the third time the judge has approved lenient punishment for men accused of sexually assault.

Judge Ralph Strother accepted the plea deal for Jacob Walter Anderson, who was indicted on sexual assault charges and pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of unlawful restraint. A no contest plea means a person does not admit guilt, but will offer no defense. Anderson was expelled from Baylor after a university investigation.

The woman who accused him of repeatedly raping her at a 2016 fraternity house party expressed outrage at the plea agreement and described the county's justice system as "severely broken." An online petition had been created to oppose the plea agreement and received thousands of signatures.

The woman has not been named and The Associated Press has a policy of not naming possible victims of sexual assault.

The deal from prosecutors allowed Anderson to receive deferred probation. The ex-Phi Delta Theta fraternity president agreed to seek counseling and pay a $400 fine. Anderson will not be forced to register as a sex offender.

The woman said she felt disoriented after accepting a drink she thought contained punch at a 2016 fraternity house party. She said Anderson led her behind a tent and repeatedly raped her while she was gagged and choked.

A warrant said the woman was assaulted until she lost consciousness and Anderson left her alone. The warrant said she had vomited on herself and could have choked to death in the backyard.

Anderson's attorneys declined to comment Monday.

The judge's decision Monday is not the first time that Strother has allowed such lenient punishment for sex crimes. Last year, he sentenced a man to deferred probation after he pleaded guilty in the 2013 rape of a former Baylor student. The judge ordered the man to pay for the woman's counseling. The man told police the woman had been drunk, according to an affidavit.

Strother earlier this year sentenced a man to felony probation for the sexual assault of a former Baylor student, a punishment that came with 30 days in jail. Adrian Andres Ramos, was working toward a degree from Texas Tech University and was allowed to serve the jail time on the weekends. Ramos told authorities he believed the sex with the woman was consensual.

Strother did not return a call from The Associated Press seeking comment on his decision to accept Anderson's plea deal.

Baylor was engulfed in a sexual assault scandal tied to its football program in 2016, ultimately leading to the departure of several school leaders.

A mother wrote a heartfelt message to a mystery man who helped her and her baby daughter on a flight from Orlando to Philadelphia last week. Kelsey Zwick said she and her daughter, who was born prematurely and needs an oxygen machine, were on their way to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) when the stranger's random act of kindness warmed their hearts.

"To the man in 2D," Zwick wrote on Facebook, hoping the mystery man would see, "I don't know you, but I imagine you saw us somewhere. I was pushing a stroller, had a diaper bag on my arm and also lugging an oxygen machine for my daughter."

Zwick's 11-month-old daughter, Lucy, is actually a twin. Her girls were born nearly 11 weeks early and Lucy spent 100 days in the NICU, while her sister stayed for 86 days, Zwick told WTXF-TV. Lucy now has chronic lung disease and was on the way to CHOP for treatment.

Zwick wrote that although they were traveling to the hospital, she and her daughter had smiles on their faces because they were going to see their "friends" at CHOP.

"We pre-boarded the plane, got cozy in our window seat and made jokes to those around us about having to sit by my yelling-but-happy baby," Zwick wrote. "The flight attendant came over and told me you were waiting to switch seats," Zwick wrote in her message to the man. "You were giving up your comfortable, first class seat to us."

When the flight attendant told Zwick what the man wanted to do to help, she was overcome with emotion.

"Not able to hold back tears, I cried my way up the aisle while my daughter Lucy laughed! She felt it in her bones too ... real, pure, goodness. I smiled and thanked you as we switched but didn't get to thank you properly."

Zwick wrote the Facebook post to say thank you, "not just for the seat itself but for noticing," she wrote. The man saw them and realized that things were not easy. And instead of just turning away, decided to stand up and help.

She thanked the anonymous flyer "for deciding you wanted to show a random act of kindness to US. It reminded me how much good there is in this world." Zwick said she said she can't wait to tell her daughter about this one day when she's old enough to understand.

"In the meantime," she wrote, "we will pay it forward."

Zwick only knew the man as the passenger in seat 2D on American Airlines flight 588, but she said she and Lucy truly feel inspired by him.

She asked Facebook friends to share the post in hopes that the mystery man would see it. Luckily, American Airlines was able to help out and Zwick learned that the man in seat 2D was Jason Kunselman. The two connected on social media, ABC News reports, and Zwick got to thank Kunselman again.

Not only did Zwick get to share her gratitude with Kunselman, but over 400,000 people shared the inspiring story on Facebook. The selfless act brightened the flight for Zwick and her daughter – and brightened the day for many others.