Marietta man arrested again after plea from 2019 attempted murder case is vacated
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MARIETTA -- A Marietta man was arrested last week on charges of attempted murder, felonious 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 vacated.
Jonathan Lee Hearn, 52, was arrested Oct. 24 on two counts of attempted murders and two counts of felonious assault, all felonies, and a misdemeanor charge of endangering children, 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, Marietta Police responded to Hearn's residence in Marietta on Dec. 1, 2019, for a disturbance in progress and when they arrived they found Hearn's girlfriend was running and screaming for help to her neighbor's house. Officers found the girlfriend's sister unresponsive with blood pouring from her mouth and the girlfriend's mother with the right side of her face bloody, her right eye cut open, her nose swollen and her mouth bleeding. Hearn had allegedly punched the mother in the face while she was holding Hearn's 1-year old daughter, causing her to drop the baby and then he punched her several more times,slammed her against a bedroom door and threw her on the ground.
He also allegedly punched his girlfriend's sister in the face, slammed her to the ground, picked her up and threw her face-first down a set of stairs where her head hit and which all led to her having a fractured skull, a brain bleed, a broken rib and two fractured vertebrae.
Hearn was originally charged in 2019. with two first-degree felony counts of attempted murders, two second-degree felony counts of felonious assault and one first-degree misdemeanor count of endangering children.
He entered a written plea of guilty to the two felonious assault charges and was sentenced to two consecutive seven-year sentences. He started serving the sentence at Belmont Correctional Institute in St. Clairsville in February 2020, according to Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction records.
These records also state his expected release date was Oct. 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 withdraw and/or vacate his plea in November 2023 with the Washington County Court of Common Pleas and they were all denied, according to court records.
He also filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus with the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio in July 2022.
In the petition, Hearn stated his guilty plea was not made knowingly, intelligently, or voluntarily, according to District Court records. On Aug. 28, the court granted his petition and ordered that his plea be vacated.
In the order granting the writ of habeas corpus and vacating the plea, it states that there was incorrect information in the written plea agreement and Hearn entered the guilty plea believing would be eligible for sentence reduction opportunities such as judicial release and credit for program participation but due to his criminal history he was ineligible and thus received sentences that could not be reduced.
"The misleading plea agreement was never corrected during the plea and sentencing hearing," the order said. "In fact the record indicated that (Hearn) was never advised of the mandatory, i.e. irreducible-nature of the sentence he faces."
The order said that Hearn entered into his plea agreement with a fundamental misunderstanding of the relevant circumstance and likely consequences of the agreement and that a guilty plea must be entered into knowingly and voluntarily.
Coil stated Hearn's plea was vacated on a technicality.
"He successfully argued on appeal that he made his plea with the understanding that he would be eligible for judicial release," Coil said. "The actual guilty plea for his case said that 0 years of his prison sentence were mandatory. This was a clerical error, as there was mandatory time, and it was stated to him orally multiple times during the plea and sentencing. Nevertheless, because of this clerical error, Mr. Hearn has argued that he made the plea with the understanding that he would be eligible for judicial release. So, because he was not eligible for judicial release while mandatory time was being served, the U.S. District Court granted a writ of habeas corpus and vacated his plea."
Washington County of Common Pleas Judge John Halliday ordered Hearn's plea be vacated last week. An order to transport Hearn from Belmont Correctional Institution to the Washington County Jail for a bond hearing was entered on Oct. 22 and then he was arrested on Oct. 24 on the original charges from 2019, according to Common Pleas Court records.
Court records show Hearn was arraigned Oct. 25 and he pleaded not guilty.
A cash surety bond of $200,000 and a personal recognizance bond have been issued for Hearn, according to court records, including the bond condition include no contact with the victims and he not violate temporary protection orders pertaining to the victims.
Neither court records nor jail records show Hearn has posted bond and the Washington County Jail website shows him still at the jail.
Hearn's trial is scheduled for Dec. 16-20, according to Coil.
Michelle Dillon can be reached at mdillon@newsandsentinel.com