![\"Dead](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.animals24-7.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Picsart_25-04-07_22-09-54-209-e1744089028333.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n(Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio\u2013\u2013<\/strong>Pickaway County Common Pleas Court Judge Matthew Chafin on April 2,\u00a0 2025 sentenced mother and son Susan and Adam Withers,\u00a0 ages 62 and 35,\u00a0 to serve a combined total of 33 and a half years in prison for the October 17,\u00a0 2024 pit bull mauling death of neighbor Jo Ann Echelbarger,\u00a0 73.<\/p>\n Susan Withers,\u00a0 sentenced to 14 years in prison,\u00a0 and Adam Withers,\u00a0 sentenced to 19 and a half years for involuntary manslaughter and keeping dangerous dogs,\u00a0 will each have to serve at least ten years before seeking parole.<\/p>\n Adam & Susan Withers.<\/strong><\/em> “I wish I could give you more,” \u00a0Judge Chafin told Susan and Adam Withers,\u00a0 recommending that neither Withers ever again be allowed to keep pets.<\/p>\n Still pending are civil lawsuits filed by Jo Ann Echelbarger\u2019s family against Pickaway County dog warden Preston Schumacher, \u00a0the condo association and property manager, \u00a0and both Susan and Adam Withers.<\/p>\n The case drew statewide and even national attention to the exceptional leniency of the Ohio state dangerous dog law,\u00a0 weakened in 2012 under pressure from the Animal Farm Foundation,\u00a0 the Best Friends Animal Society,\u00a0 and the American SPCA.<\/p>\n (See Cincinnati pit bull death indictment; owners guilty in Circleville pit death case.)<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Former Montgomery County dog warden Mark Kumpf with pit bull advocate Jane Berkey, who helped Kumpf to undo the Ohio law recognizing pit bulls as inherently \u201cvicious.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Essentially a \u201cone free bite law,\u201d\u00a0 the Ohio dangerous dog law did formerly include language \u00a0defining pit bulls as \u201cinherently vicious,\u201d \u00a0therefore requiring pit bull owners to keep their pit bulls behind secure fences,\u00a0 muzzled in public,\u00a0 and insured against liability.<\/p>\n Since the 2012 deletion,\u00a0 Ohio has experienced 25 dog attack fatalities,\u00a0 21 of them by pit bull.<\/p>\n The sentences issued to Susan and Adam Withers likely are \u201cthe longest criminal sentences for a dog attack in state history and will probably be appealed,\u201d\u00a0 Pickaway County Prosecutor Jayme Fountain told Columbus Dispatch <\/em>reporter Laura Bischoff.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Breaking out of the Withers\u2019 condominium through a front door reportedly \u201clatched\u201d with a rolled-up towel instead of a deadbolt,\u00a0 the pit bulls Apollo and Echo fatally mauled JoAnn Echelbarger,\u00a0 who had been working in her flower bed.<\/p>\n \u201cHer 84-year-old husband, \u00a0Stanley Echelbarger, \u00a0who suffered from dementia and Parkinson’s disease, \u00a0witnessed the mauling from a screened-in porch,\u201d\u00a0 Bischoff wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was fully conscious. \u00a0She was terrorized. \u00a0She suffered and knew it the entire time,”\u00a0 testified Jo Ann Echelbarger’s son, \u00a0Bill Rogers, \u00a0at the sentencing hearing.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter losing his wife and home, \u00a0Stanley Echelbarger moved to a nursing home near Columbus. \u00a0He died in March 2025,\u201d\u00a0 Bischoff wrote.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The pit bull attack \u201cended his will to live,\u201d \u00a0Rogers told the court.<\/p>\n One of the pit bulls was shot by the first responding police officer,\u00a0 in order for him to approach Jo Ann Echelbarger.<\/p>\n The other pit bull ran away,\u00a0 killed another dog near Teays Valley East Middle School,\u00a0 menacing the other dog\u2019s owner,\u00a0 and was finally run over by a Pickway County Sheriff\u2019s Office deputy,\u00a0 but survived until shot by the deputy \u201cin the vicinity of a park and another residence, \u00a0which included a dog outside in the yard,\u201d\u00a0 according to an Ashville Police Department media statement.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Between September 8,\u00a0 2020 and January 2024,\u00a0 reported Adam Conn for WCMH in Columbus,\u00a0 Ohio,\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cSusan and Adam Withers received as many as seven warnings from their home owners\u2019 association, \u00a0or lawyers representing The Reserve at Ashton Village, \u00a0in Ashville.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the warnings,\u00a0 Conn detailed,\u00a0 came after the pit bulls killed another dog.<\/p>\n Despite the Withers\u2019 contention that the pit bulls were \u201cservice dogs,\u201d\u00a0 a Pickaway County Court of Common Pleas judge on September 11,\u00a0 2024 ordered that both pit bulls be removed \u201cimmediately and permanently.\u201d<\/p>\n The two pit bulls killed Jo Ann Echelbarger five weeks later.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cSusan Withers,\u201d\u00a0 Conn said,\u00a0 \u201chad no prior charges related to dog ownership.\u201d<\/p>\n However,\u00a0 \u201cOne of the dogs that killed Echelbarger had previously been designated as a dangerous dog after he attacked another condo resident, \u00a0Kimberlee Black, \u00a0and killed her puppy in October 2023,\u201d\u00a0 Bischoff recounted.<\/p>\n \u201cUnder Ohio law,\u00a0 the Witherses did not have to put their dog down after the attack on Black. Instead, \u00a0they were ticketed and required to buy a dangerous dog tag, \u00a0post a sign on their property, keep the dog confined, \u00a0and walk him on a muzzle and short chain leash.<\/p>\n \u201cSusan Withers obtained the dog tag 271 days after the attack on Black.\u201d<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAdam Withers has previously been charged with owning a dangerous dog twice, \u00a0facing two counts in May 2024 and one count in December. 2023,\u201d\u00a0 Conn said.<\/p>\n Adam Withers \u201cwas also charged with owning an unconfined dog\u201d after the attack on Black in October 2023,\u00a0 Conn reported.<\/p>\n But \u201cThe dangerous dog charges were dismissed in court, with prosecutors citing insufficient evidence, \u00a0while the defendant paid a fine for the unconfined dog charge and waived his right to a trial,\u201d\u00a0 Conn said.<\/p>\n Laura Bischoff.<\/strong><\/em> Noted Bischoff,\u00a0 \u201cThe Echelbarger case was featured in a nine-month investigation,\u201d\u00a0 for which Bischoff herself was lead author, \u00a0\u201cpublished by the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer,<\/em> Akron Beacon Journal<\/em> and Canton Repository<\/em> into how dangerous dog attacks across Ohio cause disfigurement, \u00a0amputations, \u00a0psychological trauma, \u00a0and sometimes deaths.\u201d<\/p>\n (See Two more dog attack dead, but USA Today gets hep to the pit bull jive.)<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Beth & Merritt Clifton with friends.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n But while calling for stronger legislation,\u00a0 Bischoff and her many sources fell short of calling for either restoration of a breed-specific state dog law,\u00a0 or abolition of the one-free-bite definition of a dangerous dog.<\/p>\n The post Mother & son get 14 & 19.5 years for pit bull death of Jo Ann Echelbarger<\/a> appeared first on Animals 24-7<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (Beth Clifton collage) Death of Echelbarger was soon followed by death of her husband CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio\u2013\u2013Pickaway County Common Pleas Court Judge Matthew Chafin on April 2,\u00a0 2025 sentenced mother and son Susan and Adam Withers,\u00a0 ages 62 and 35,\u00a0 to serve a combined total of 33 and a half years in prison for the October […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":177966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12022],"tags":[9093,2647,1205,4121,70602,7028,10469,956,1003],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-177965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activist","tag-amp","tag-ann","tag-bull","tag-death","tag-echelbarger","tag-mother","tag-pit","tag-son","tag-years"],"yoast_head":"\nDeath of Echelbarger was soon followed by death of her husband<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
(Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n“I wish I could give you more,”\u00a0 says judge<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n25 fatal attacks,\u00a0 21 by pit bull,\u00a0 since Ohio dog law was weakened in 2012<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nRolled-up towel instead of a deadbolt<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nLoss of wife ended husband’s will to live<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nClaimed killer pit bulls were \u201cservice dogs\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nNo prior charges,\u00a0 but prior attack<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nCharged twice,\u00a0 got one slap on the wrist<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
(Facebook photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nNine-month investigation<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nPlease donate to support our work:<\/strong><\/h2>\n
www.animals24-7.org\/donate\/<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n