Chillicothe man acquitted of woman’s murder

CHILLICOTHE — A Ross County jury has acquitted a Chillicothe man of murder in the beating and stabbing death of a female companion whose body was discovered the next morning snagged on a fence where she had fled her attacker.

Donnie Cochenour Jr. faced 15 years to life in prison if he had been convicted of the murder of Rebecca Cade, 31, of Chillicothe. Her bloodied body was found on the morning of Oct. 13, 2015, snagged about 2 feet off the ground on a fence that was being installed. Workers arriving at the site who found her body initially thought it was a gruesome mannequin left there in the run-up to Halloween.

A trail of blood marked where Cade had fled her attacker and tried to jump the fence at an American Electric Power substation on Brownell Street in northeast Chillicothe. A sweatshirt sleeve of the petite woman, who was about 5 feet tall and weighed less than 90 pounds, caught and pinned her to the fence, where she died.

The jury deliberated three hours Thursday night and another eight hours Friday before reaching its verdict. About noon Friday, the jury had told Common Pleas Judge Michael Ater that it was deadlocked and could not reach a unanimous verdict. The judge told the jury to order lunch and continue deliberations. The jury announced about 5:20 p.m. that it had reached a verdict. Court returned to session and the verdict was read about 5:45 p.m.

Cade’s parents, who were in the courtroom when the verdict was announced, were clearly devastated but declined to comment afterward. Mike Cade leaned over and put his head on his wife Cindy’s shoulder and an arm around her after the verdict was read.

Cochenour, 28, took the stand Thursday and denied killing Cade, the mother of a young son who was being raised by a relative while she ran the streets and battled addictions. Both were homeless the night she was attacked.

Cochenour acknowledged he had sex with her the night before she was found and that at some point they argued. He said she bit him and he hit her. That is all that happened, he said.

Prosecutor Matt Schmidt gave a different account of what happened, summing up for the jury in his closing argument the key evidence and testimony presented in the trial, which began Tuesday.

Schmidt said Cochenour beat Cade with a rock and stabbed her with a knife that he plunged into the top of her head and into her face, then went to the home of his sister, Lisa Frost, his jeans covered in mud and Cade’s blood. He showered and Frost bagged and discarded his clothing in a trash bin.

Frost told police, who later recovered the jeans, that her brother told her he had been in a fight with Cade and that he thought he had killed her. Crime lab analysis showed it was Cade’s blood on the jeans. Frost testified Wednesday that she initially lied to police about what her brother told her.

Cochenour’s attorney, Jim Boulger, acknowledged a link between Cochenour and Cade, but said others who were out drinking and fighting that night at a rowdy bonfire near where Cade’s body was found included people who disliked her. Someone else could have killed her, he said.

Joseph Like, a defense witness, admitted his memory of the night’s events was foggy because he was drinking vodka heavily at the bonfire and then was punched unconscious in a fight later. He testified he nonetheless remembered that before he was knocked out he saw a woman who was at the bonfire spot Cade as she walked through an alley. The woman dashed into the alley, pinned Cade to the ground and starting hitting her, he said.

Mariah Cool, another defense witness, testified she was on her front porch around midnight that night when she saw Cade get picked up by a car that contained three other people.