Teacher cleared of murder charge

A Columbus City Schools teacher who was charged with murder in April after stabbing a man in her Plain Township apartment has been cleared by a Franklin County grand jury.

The grand jurors chose not to indict Shanara J. Culbreath, 28, after determining that she acted in self-defense, county Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said.

Culbreath, a special-education teacher at Woodward Park Middle School in the Northland area, was reassigned to non-classroom duties after her arrest, pending the outcome of the case, said Scott Varner, district spokesman.

“She never lost her job,” he said Tuesday. The grand jury decision “gives us a chance to do a review and determine whether she will return to the classroom” when the school year begins Aug. 23.

Court records show that the grand jury issued its decision not to indict, known as a no bill, on June 6.

Patrol officers were called to Culbreath’s apartment in the 5400 block of Cameron Ellis Drive, near New Albany, on a report of a fight at 7:36 a.m. April 12.

A caller told dispatchers that she could hear a woman screaming, “Let me out of here!” The caller also heard a man say, “I’m going to hurt you” and what sounded like the man punching a wall.

Responding officers found Vincente K. Mills, 41, in the apartment with a stab wound in his chest.

Mills, who was Culbreath’s live-in boyfriend and in recent years also had a Groveport address, was pronounced dead at 8:30 a.m. by a Plain Township paramedic.

Culbreath had left the scene, and officers began searching for her. She returned to her residence at about 2:15 p.m. and was taken into custody. She was released on bond the following day.

Culbreath passed two polygraph examinations, including one conducted by the State Highway Patrol, in which she said Mills was assaulting her when she stabbed him, O’Brien said.

She might have stabbed him accidentally while defending herself, he said. The wound was small but severed an artery.

“Whether it was accidental or intentional matters not,” her attorney, Jason Sarver, said in an email. “She has a right to defend herself if she was reasonably in fear of her life. She has no duty to retreat as she was in her home when this happened.”