A patient and former three staffers at a state-run Ohio mental health facility were indicted this week on charges related to the beating death of another patient at the facility in 2022.
According to The Associated Press, a 24-year-old patient at Twin Valley Behavioral Healthcare in Columbus attacked the 57-year-old victim on July 23, 2022, and has been charged with murder and felonious assault.
The victim had been at the facility for about a month after he was found incompetent to stand trial on a 2021 murder charge. The suspect was being evaluated to determine if he was competent to stand trial in a sexual battery case.
Details about the the attack, including what prompted it, have not been released. The Franklin County Coroner’s Office determined that the victim died from blunt force trauma to the head.
Court records say that John Traylor, 65; Augustine Norris, 66; and Julie Willoughby, 40; are charged with involuntary manslaughter and patient abuse or neglect, according to court records. Traylor and Norris were psychiatric assistants at the time of the attack but retired last spring. Willoughby was a nurse.
The indictments were made public on Friday. None of the three former employees are listed in Franklin County jail records. The patient’s name was not released.
