SON FACES 5 MORE CHARGES

SON FACES 5 MORE CHARGES

CARROLL MAY BE TRIED AS AN ADULT

October 26, 1993

Janice Haidet

Dayton Daily News

The eldest adopted son of Timothy and Kathleen Carroll faces five additional charges, and prosecutors say they are now considering whether to try 17-year-old James Carroll as an adult in connection with at least one of four suspicious deaths in the family.

Meanwhile, Greene County Prosecutor William F. Schenck has said that more charges could follow as a result of testing done on one of two bodies that were exhumed last week. Schenck said he expects to take some court action this week - and that action could determine whether James' trial, which is set for Monday, is postponed. He would not elaborate, saying, "We're considering a number of options . . . I am truly, to some considerable extent, at the mercy of what my experts say."

Testing on the bodies of Mollie Carroll, 3, and Josiah Carroll, 12, took about nine hours over the weekend. The bodies were returned to their graves in Preble Memory Gardens on Saturday afternoon. They were disinterred on Oct. 18 after several court hearings.

Testing turned up inadequate evidence for Schenck to consider charges in Mollie's Dec. 9 death, but Schenck said it reinforced his belief that 12-year-old Josiah Carroll was smothered.

John H. Rion, who represents Mrs. Carroll, said, "Even if they do have evidence of suffocation, that doesn't lead them to who might have done it. So what they're doing is an exercise in futility."

Originally charged with delinquency by reason of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the September 1992 death of his adoptive sister, Hannah, 6, James now faces five "alternative charges" as a result of that same death, said Assistant Prosecutor Suzanne Schmidt.

The new charges - four counts of endangering children and a count of felonious assault - give Greene County Juvenile Court the option of finding James guilty of all or none of the offenses in "a continuing course of conduct," meaning that James was in charge when Hannah was exposed to chlorine bleach and was involved during the three days that elapsed before she died.

The new charges resulted from additional consultation with Glenn D. Warden of Cincinnati, Schenck said. Warden is a burns expert who testified at an inquest last summer that Hannah could not have poured the bleach on herself.