Man found guilty in sister’s murder
Mitigation phase of trial begins Monday; Kirby faces death penalty.
A 38-year-old South LEBANON —
Lebanon man was found guilty of all but one charge filed against him in a capital murder trial in Warren County.
Christopher Kirby faces the death penalty in the trial’s mitigation phase that begins Monday.
On Wednesday, a three-judge panel found him guilty of murdering his adoptive sister Deborah Power, 63, and attempting to murder her husband, Ronnie Power, 66, at the home the Kirbys and Powers shared with another family in South Lebanon. He was also found guilty of aggravated robbery, felonious assault, grand theft and theft. The panel found Kirby not guilty of tampering with evidence.
Kirby was found guilty of beating both Powers with a baseball bat in September 2017 after Deborah Power told him he and his wife would have to move out of the house. Evidence showed Deborah Power told the Kirbys to move out after Kirby overdrew their bank account to buy heroin.
In April, wife Jacqueline “Jackie” Kirby, 31, was sentenced to three years on probation for receiving stolen property and misuse of credit cards and ordered to enter the Women’s Recovery Center, an outpatient substance abuse program in Xenia.
It was the third day of the trial in court in Lebanon.
A Warren County detective spent most of Wednesday morning on the witness stand.
The prosecution and defense rested after the testimony of Detective Jay Henning.
“This is your opportunity, last opportunity, to tell us what happened,” Henning told Christopher Kirby as he and another detective questioned Kirby and his wife separately.
The judges spent most of the morning watching video of Christopher Kirby’s statement in which he said he beat Deborah and Ronnie Power with a bat after being told he and his wife would have to leave after he overdrew the family’s bank account.
“We didn’t have nowhere to go,” he told the detectives.
Christopher Kirby also admitted he and his wife traded a TV he took after the assaults for heroin.
He said the violence came about after his expectations that he would be able to reimburse the Powers, who supported the household with Social Security payments, fell apart.
“Does Ohio have the death penalty? Can I ask for it?” Christopher Kirby asked after being served with murder, attempted murder and robbery charges.
He said he was driven to violence in part by anger at Ronnie Power, now 66, striking his daughter and emphasized the limited role his wife, Jacqueline, played in the crime.
“He hurt my little girl. I couldn’t take it anymore,” Kirby told the detectives.
No other evidence or testimony supported Christopher Kirby’s allegations. His lawyers did not question witnesses about this.
“Can Jackie go home?” Christopher Kirby asked at another point before making the incriminating statement. The detectives said it would help her case if he spelled out their roles.
“I’ll keep talking,” Christopher Kirby said. Henning also recounted other earlier versions of Christopher Kirby’s explanation for showing up in Ronnie Power’s pick-up at the University Hospital in West Chester where Power was taken by ambulance.
Henning said he was investigating a felonious assault report involving the beating of Ronnie Power when they found Deborah Power’s body in a locked room at the house. A search warrant was obtained and a strategy mapped for the murder investigation.