The case was featured in a 9-month investigation by USA TODAY Network-Ohio that highlighted the impacts of dog attacks and sometimes lax penalties. Across the country, fatal dog attacks have spiked.
Vicious: How Ohio laws fail dog attack victims | Documentary
Ohio law allows vicious dogs to kill twice before they’re required to be put down. Hear the stories of dog attack victims and their calls for changes.
An Ohio mother and son were sentenced to more than a decade in prison after their two pit bulls fatally mauled a 73-year-old neighbor.
Susan and Adam Withers’ two dogs, Apollo and Echo, got out of their condo through a front door with a broken latch and violently attacked Jo Ann Echelbarger. In February, a Pickaway County jury convicted them of felony involuntary manslaughter and violations of the state’s dog laws.
The Witherses were sentenced to 14 to 19½ years in prison and can apply for judicial release after a decade.
“I wish I could give you more,” Pickaway County Common Pleas Court Judge Matthew Chafin told them. Chafin recommended that they never be allowed to own pets when they get out.
It likely marks the longest criminal sentence for a dog attack in state history. The Echelbarger case was featured in a nine-month investigation published by The Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and Canton Repository, all part of the USA TODAY Network. The investigation revealed how dangerous dog attacks across Ohio cause disfigurement, amputations, psychological trauma and death.
Across the nation, dogs have bitten, mauled and killed an increasing number of people in recent years. Nationwide, 1 million of the people bitten by dogs require medical treatment each year. Children under 10 account for nearly half of bite victims and are overrepresented in fatalities. Experts say more must be done to save lives, but exactly how to stop the rising number of canine attacks has become an extremely divisive issue.
In Ohio, Pickaway County Prosecutor Jayme Fountain said the lengthy sentence will probably be appealed.
What happened during the dog attack?
Echelbarger had been working in a garden plot on a patio between her condo and the Withers’ condo in October 2024. Her 84-year-old husband who suffered from dementia and Parkinson’s disease, witnessed the mauling from the screened-in porch.
“The way that she died, it was heinous. She was fully conscious. She was terrorized. She suffered and knew it the entire time,” her son, Bill Rogers, at the sentencing. “So, I’ll be quite straight with you: there is no hole deep or dark enough. There is no hell hot enough. There is no penalty harsh enough.”
After losing his wife and home, Stanley Echelbarger, moved to a nursing home near Columbus. He died in March.
“This ended his will to live,” Rogers said.
The Echelbarger family filed a civil lawsuit against Pickaway County Dog Warden Preston Schumacher, the condo association and property manager and the Withers. County officials declined to comment on the civil lawsuit.
‘A crime of inaction’
Fountain, the prosecutor, asked for 12 years of prison time. Defense attorney Peter Scranton recommended four years for Adam Withers. Defense attorney Lisa Tome recommended fewer than five years in prison for Susan Withers, 62, saying she was less responsible for the death than her son.
“It is a crime of inaction,” she said. “It’s a failure.”
Currently, violations of Ohio’s dog laws are misdemeanors, punishable with fines that start at $25 and restrictions for handling the dog in the future. In rare cases, prosecutors can seek felony charges if records show prior vicious or dangerous behavior from the dog that later kills a person.
One of the dogs that killed Echelbarger had previously been designated as a dangerous dog after it attacked another condo resident, Kimberlee Black, and killed her puppy in October 2023.
Under Ohio law, the Witherses did not have to put their dog down after the attack on Black. Instead, they were ticketed and required to buy a dangerous dog tag, post a sign on their property, keep the dog confined and walk him on a muzzle and short, chain leash.
Susan Withers obtained the dog tag 271 days after the attack on Black. At trial, police testified that the Withers’ front door didn’t latch and a towel had been jammed into a space that previously had a deadbolt.
Law enforcement shot and killed both dogs in the aftermath of the Echelbarger mauling.
Susan Withers, appearing in court in handcuffs and ankle chains, said “I’m just sorry that all this happened.”
At sentencing, Chafin noted that the Witherses showed little remorse and Susan Withers only cried when shown police video of her pit bulls being shot and hearing a description of her third dog being held at the pound. The judge said neither showed emotion toward their neighbor.
Follow State government reporter Laura Bischoff on X @lbischoff.
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