Man arrested again for incident from 2019 | News, sports, jobs

A Marietta man was arrested last week on charges of attempted murder, assault and child endangerment stemming from a 2019 incident for which he was already serving a 14-year prison sentence after his guilty plea was recently withdrawn.

Jonathan Lee Hearn, 52, was arrested Oct. 24 on two counts of attempted murder and two counts of assault, all felonies, and a misdemeanor count of child endangerment, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office website.

The charges stem from a 2019 case, according to Washington County Prosecutor Nicole Coil.

According to previous reports, on December 1, 2019, Marietta police responded to Hearn’s residence in Marietta for an ongoing disturbance and when they arrived, they found Hearn’s girlfriend running to her neighbor’s house screaming for help. Officers found the friend’s sister unconscious with blood pouring from her mouth, and the friend’s mother with blood on the right side of her face, her right eye cut open, her nose swollen and her mouth bleeding. Hearn allegedly punched the mother in the face while she was holding Hearn’s 1-year-old daughter, causing her to drop the baby. He then punched her several more times, slamming her against a bedroom door and throwing her to the floor.

He also allegedly punched his girlfriend’s sister in the face, knocked her to the ground, picked her up and threw her face down down the stairs where her head landed, all of which led to her suffering a fractured skull and had a cerebral hemorrhage. a broken rib and two broken vertebrae.

Hearn was originally charged in 2019 with two first-degree felony counts of attempted murder, two second-degree felony counts of assault and one first-degree felony count of child endangerment.

He pleaded guilty to the two assault charges and was sentenced to two consecutive seven-year prison sentences. He began serving the sentence at Belmont Correctional Institute in St. Clairsville in February 2020, according to Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction records.

This data also states that his expected release date was October 23, 2030.

Hearnhe filed a motion to vacate his conviction or sentence in July 2020, a plea withdrawal in March 2021, and a motion to vacate and/or vacate his plea in November 2023 in the Washington County Court of Common Pleas, and all were dismissed, according to court records.

He also filed a petition for habeas corpus in July 2022 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

In the petition, Hearn stated that his guilty plea was not made knowingly, intelligently or voluntarily, according to court records. On August 28, the court granted his request and ordered that his plea be withdrawn.

The order granting habeas corpus and withdrawing the plea states that there was incorrect information in the written plea agreement and Hearn entered the guilty plea believing he would be eligible for sentence reduction options such as judicial release and credit for participating in the program, but due to his criminal history he was ineligible and thus received sentences that could not be reduced.

“The misleading plea deal was never corrected during the plea and sentencing hearing,” the order said. “In fact, the report indicated that (Hearn) was never informed of the mandatory, that is, irreducible, nature of the sentence awaiting him.”

The order stated that Hearn entered into his plea agreement with a fundamental misunderstanding of the relevant circumstance and the likely consequences of the agreement and that a guilty plea must be entered into knowingly and voluntarily.

Coil stated that Hearn’s plea was withdrawn due to a technicality.

“He successfully argued on appeal that he entered his plea on the understanding that he would be eligible for judicial release.” Coil said. “The actual guilty plea for his case stated that 0 years of his prison sentence was mandatory. This was an administrative error as there was a mandatory time requirement and this was communicated to him orally several times during the plea and sentencing. Nevertheless, because of this administrative error, Mr. Hearn has argued that he entered the plea with the understanding that he would be eligible for judicial release. Thus, because he was not eligible for judicial release while serving the mandatory time, the U.S. District Court granted habeas corpus and revoked his plea.”

Washington County of Common Pleas Judge John Halliday ordered Hearn’s plea withdrawn last week. On October 22, a warrant was entered to transport Hearn from Belmont Correctional Institution to the Washington County Jail for a hearing. He was then arrested on Oct. 24 on the original 2019 charge, according to Common Pleas Court records.

Court records show Hearn was arraigned on Oct. 25 and he pleaded not guilty.

Hearn was issued a $200,000 bond and personal recognizance bond, according to court documents. The condition of the bond is that he have no contact with the victims and that he not violate any temporary protective orders regarding the victims.

Neither court records nor jail records show Hearn has posted bond, and the Washington County Jail website shows he remains in jail.

According to Coil, Hearn’s trial is scheduled for December 16 and 20.