- A mother and son are on trial for involuntary manslaughter and failure to confine dangerous dogs after their two pit bulls fatally mauled their neighbor.
- The prosecution alleges that the dogs’ owners did not properly secure their home, allowing the dogs to escape and attack the victim.
- This incident follows a previous attack by the same dogs on another neighbor, which resulted in one of the dogs being designated as dangerous.
- The victim’s family and neighbors who witnessed the attack gave emotional testimony during the trial.
Whether a mother and son will be acquitted or found guilty in the fatal dog attack of their next-door neighbor is now in the hands of the jury.
Deliberations will start Thursday after a three-day trial in Pickaway County Common Pleas Court in Circleville, not far from the condo complex where Jo Ann Echelbarger was fatally mauled on Oct. 17.
On Wednesday, Susan Withers did not take the witness stand but her son Adam Withers did. He told jurors that he drove his mother to work early that morning, returned home for a nap, took the dogs out to urinate and fed them and then secured the front door before leaving again that afternoon. His last words to his pit bulls, Apollo and Echo: “I told them both I loved them.”
Adam Withers testified that he has no idea how his dogs got out of the condo and fatally attacked his 73-year-old neighbor.
Prosecutors showed jurors gruesome autopsy photos and extensive footage from Ashville Police Department body worn cameras, including Officer Antonio Jester shooting both dogs and then rendering aid to Echelbarger.
Her adult children, Bill Rogers and Earlene Romine, attended each day of the trial, sitting in the front row and struggling at times to keep their emotions in check.
Neighbors Kimberlee Black and Carol Edgar gave emotional testimony. Edgar testified about hearing screams, seeing the dogs attacking “something” and calling 911 that afternoon.
Black and her puppy had been attacked in October 2023 − a year before the fatal attack on Echelbarger. Black’s complaint to Pickaway County Dog Warden Preston Schumacher led to one of the two pit bulls being designated as a dangerous dog, which triggered legal requirements for the owners.
Defense counsel for the Withers, who were tried side by side, argued that the mother and son weren’t home when the attack occurred. But prosecutors took pains to point out that the door to the Withers’ condo wasn’t secure, allowing the dogs to leave the home and attack Echelbarger.
Most violations of Ohio’s dangerous dog laws are misdemeanors that carry minimal fines. Prosecutors charged both Withers with felony involuntary manslaughter as well as failure to confine dangerous dogs.
Last year, the condo association sued Adam and Susan Withers and won a court order for the dogs to be removed just weeks before Echelbarger was killed. That order was not heeded.
Across Ohio, about 17,000 dog bites are reported to public health agencies each year. A small subset of those bites are attacks that result in serious injuries. On average, Ohio sees two to three fatal dog attacks each year, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
On Wednesday, Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich announced felony charges against Warren Houston, whose 3-year-old daughter Kingsley Wright died in a dog attack in December in Cincinnati.
Houston, 45, faces charges of involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide and endangering children, court records show. His daughter was killed on Dec. 27 in a dog attack while at her father’s apartment in Roselawn for the holidays.
Laura Bischoff is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
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