Western-Star.com

By Tiffany Y. Latta

Staff Writer

LEBANON — A pre-trial hearing will be held in Warren County Common Pleas Court Wednesday for Timothy Hancock, who in 2000 strangled his cell mate at Warren Correctional Institution.

A jury recommended in 2001 that Judge Neal Bronson sentence Hancock to death for the murder of Jason Wagner, 25, who was serving 44 years to life for kidnapping, molesting and the attempted murder of a 3-year-old Lancaster girl.

But Bronson sentenced Hancock to life in prison after learning jurors wrongly received some exhibits — an audiotaped confession and photos — during the sentencing phase.

Bronson later sentenced Hancock to death after the Ohio 12^th District Court of Appeals ruled in 2003 that Bronson erred in ignoring the jury’s recommendation. However, four Supreme Court justices ruled in February that the jury’s recommendation of death was invalid and ordered that Hancock get a new sentencing hearing for the crime.

Hancock will appear before Warren County Common Pleas Court Judge James L. Flannery.

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4542 or tlatta@coxohio.com.