POLICE HEADLINES
A man accused of murder in the June 2016 death of his girlfriend has been convicted and will be sentenced in November.
Reginald Lee Varner, 48, was found guilty Monday on counts related to Katherine Glass, Montgomery County Prosecutor Mat Heck Jr.’s office said in a prepared statement.
Varner is guilty of three counts of murder, which includes a three-year mandatory firearm specification.
According to the prosecutor’s office, Varner shot Glass the night of June 7, 2016, as they sat in a vehicle in the parking lot of Arby’s in Moraine. He then moved the woman’s body from the driver’s seat to the passenger side of the vehicle and drove away.
Varner moved the body a second time, to the back of a van located at a home in Jefferson Twp., after the homeowner, a friend of the defendant, called police to report the shooting.
A search of the vehicle uncovered Glass’s body.
Sentencing is set for Nov. 8. arrested, Reeve said.
An investigation began last Friday after Middletown High School Resource Officer Luke Agee was told by school administrators that a student wanted to report possible inappropriate behavior by a teacher, according to the police report.
The teacher allegedly began texting with female students before they turned 18, then after their birthdays he allegedly had sexual contact with them, Reeve told this news outlet.
It is believed there are three to five victims, Reeve said.
Because of his position as a teacher, laws may have been broken even if the students were 18 years old at the time, according to Reeve.
Reeve said there was a previous complaint against the teacher last year, but that alleged victim was a college student when the allegations came to light and chose not to cooperate in the investigation.
Detectives plan to take the results of the current investigation directly to a Butler County grand jury for consideration, according to Reeve.
This news outlet has reached out to Middletown City Schools for more information. to appear in Clark County Municipal Court on Tuesday. Springfield police were called to the 900 block of Robinson Road on Oct. 19, according to an affidavit.
“Upon arrival officers spoke with the reporting party ... who stated she went out to her car around 8:40 a.m. this morning and discovered the child victim crying in her driveway,” the affidavit said.
Police questioned the child, whose age was not released, and the child told them he fell asleep at night and when he woke up his mother wasn’t home, the affidavit said. Authorities alleged surveillance footage from a neighbor’s home security system shows Smith left the home around 10 p.m. and hadn’t returned, the affidavit said.
The child was placed with a family member, the affidavit says, and Smith couldn’t be contacted until she was allegedly involved in a car crash later that day.
“Ms. Smith immediately stated (without being questioned or interviewed by officers) that she did not leave her son alone last night and that she left him there with a sitter,” the affidavit says. “She said it was her boyfriend and that he came over drunk after she put the child victim to bed. She stated she left him in the car of the intoxicated male while she went out.”
Officers then advised her of her Miranda Rights, the affidavit says, and that’s when she decided to stop talking.
Smith was refused by the jail because of a head injury, according to the report.