Hillsboro man sentenced for involuntary manslaughter, tampering with evidence in connection with grandchild's death

A Hillsboro man was sentenced Monday to serve at least eight and a half years in prison, after a jury convicted him in October of involuntary manslaughter and other charges related to the death of his 10-year-old grandchild.

As previously reported, John Powell, 56, was indicted by a Highland County grand jury in July and charged with five counts, including two counts of involuntary manslaughter, a first-degree felony; corrupting another with drugs, a second-degree felony; endangering children, a third-degree felony; and tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony.

After a jury trial that began Oct. 28 and concluded the morning of Oct. 29 with jury instructions and closing arguments, it took a jury of seven women and five men a little over an hour to return guilty verdicts on all five counts.

According to the facts of the case brought out at trial, the victim was spending the night at Powell’s home on Dec. 23, 2023 after the family celebrated Christmas together. The victim, who was 10, was “coughing and congested,” and Powell gave the child medicine in bed. After realizing the child did not come out of the bedroom the following morning, Powell and his wife found the victim “covered in fluid and blood and not breathing” in the bed.

The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office later determined in February 2024 that the victim’s cause of death was determined to be “morphine intoxication,” or that the victim “overdosed on morphine,” Highland County Prosecutor Anneka Collins said.

As noted at the sentencing hearing Monday, the first four counts merged for purposes of sentencing, with Collins asking Highland County Common Pleas Court Judge Rocky Coss to sentence Powell on count one of the indictment, involuntary manslaughter. Powell was also sentenced on the tampering with evidence charge.

Following an emotional hearing in a packed courtroom, Coss sentenced Powell to a minimum of seven years on the involuntary manslaughter charge, consecutive to 18 months on the tampering with evidence charge, for a total minimum of eight and a half years in prison. Under the Reagan Tokes Law, Powell could serve up to 10 and a half years in prison.

Powell had 41 days of jail time credit. Upon Powell’s release from prison, Coss said that he will be ordered to serve five years of post-release control.

Prior to sentencing, however, Coss heard from representatives of the victim’s family, legal counsel and Powell.

Both of the victim’s parents gave statements, primarily aiming their comments toward Powell.

“You took our baby from us,” the victim’s mother said. “You lied and were a coward. You knew from the moment you found [the victim] that [the victim’s] death was your fault.

“I thought you loved [the victim], but obviously not as much as you love yourself. For three months, you lied. You had three months to come clean about what you did, but you did not, until you had no other choice.”

The mother added that she believes Powell “would have taken your lies to your own grave had this investigation never taken place.”

The mother also spoke about the victim, as she said she was “blessed to be” the victim’s mother and spoke about her child’s loving and kind personality.

“I hope you always remember the decisions you made and the repercussions of your actions,” the mother told Powell. “I do forgive you, because [the victim] would have.

“But I will never forget.”

Regarding Powell’s sentencing, the mother said he “should receive the maximum punishment you can get, even though you will never serve the amount of time you deserve.”

The victim’s father then spoke, calling out the fact that Powell wanted to classify the death of the victim “as an accident, when all you had to be is accountable.” He said that Powell has “not once tried to apologize” for the victim’s death.

“Your actions have destroyed my family, and after this day, I want no contact from you,” the victim’s father said. “It’s time for you to be accountable for your actions for once.”

Another relative cried as she spoke about her memories of the victim.

“Because of your recklessness, we only have memories,” she told Powell.

The relative also spoke about Powell’s sentence, as she said Powell “deserves to be punished for his actions.

“No amount of time will bring our angel [the victim] back,” she said. “But [the victim] deserves to have justice.

“I would urge the court to consider the maximum penalty so he can think about what he has done and how many lives were affected by his deadly actions.”

A fourth relative also spoke about Powell and his lack of “remorse for what he has done to my family.” She also testified about the victim and the victim’s sweet and loving nature.

“Our family will never be the same,” she said.

After the victim impact statements were given, Collins then addressed the court, listing some of the things brought out at Powell’s trial in October as she asked the judge “to impose a term of incarceration.”

Collins said that characterizing the victim’s death as an “accident” or “negligent action” by Powell was “not the case, not what the jury found, not what the facts were.

“He knowingly gave [the victim] liquid morphine, and that killed [the victim], and that is on him,” Collins said. “That is his fault, and he did that. That is what the jury found.”

At trial, Collins said that during the morning of Dec. 24, Powell took liquid morphine out of his kitchen cabinet and hid it in the garage. On the day of the victim’s funeral, Powell threw the bottle of morphine in a gas station trash can in Brown County, Collins said.

“They say the coverup is worse than the crime,” Collins told the judge Monday. “Well, there’s no coverup that would be worse than this crime, but I think the coverup speaks directly to his character. Immediately upon finding [the victim] in bed deceased, he runs to the kitchen, gets the bottle of morphine, runs to the garage and hides it.

“Those are the actions of someone who’s hoping they don’t get caught. He repeatedly lied to law enforcement. He was dishonest with the jurors on the stand.”

Collins added that Powell’s disposal of the morphine on the day of the victim’s funeral “speaks volumes.”

Like the victim’s family members, Collins argued that Powell has shown “no remorse,” including in recordings of jail phone calls that she has heard, nor has he ever apologized to the victim’s parents.

Powell’s attorney Patrick Mulligan asked the judge to “focus on the lack of intent” to cause harm in the involuntary manslaughter charge.

He spoke about a sentencing memorandum he filed, which he said included testimonies and letters from Powell’s wife and others who spoke positively of Powell and his character. Mulligan asked the court to consider those statements as well to “counterbalance” comments made by the victim’s family.

“I understand the gravity of the harm that was caused,” Mulligan said. “There was not intent to cause that harm. I think also that 20/20 hindsight is painful. It’s painful for everyone in this room. It is particularly painful for my client because one or two things done differently, we wouldn’t even be here, quite frankly. That’s what makes 20/20 hindsight so difficult.

“I appreciate the pain that everyone is going through. To suggest that he has not felt remorse is incorrect, based on my knowledge.”
 
Mulligan added that the “harm is permanent,” including for Powell.

“It’s something that he will have to live with the rest of his life,” Mulligan said.

Finally, Powell was granted an opportunity to speak.

“I would like to say how so sorry I am,” Powell said. “I truly loved [the victim] with all of my heart, and yes, I do have to live with this every day.”

Powell said he “cries every day” and has trouble sleeping at night. He spoke about how much he loved the victim and that he “would never intentionally hurt” his grandchild or “anybody.”

Powell addressed the victim’s parents and said he was sorry “for their loss and their pain.

“Believe me, I know what they’re going through,” Powell said. “I loved [the victim] just as much as anyone in the world.”

Powell concluded his statement by speaking about all of the people he has “helped through my life” and how he has “tried to be a good man.

“I have sacrificed for each and every one of them,” he said.

After hearing all of these statements, Coss also addressed Powell before handing down his sentence. He said that he was basing his sentence on “what happened,” not on the comments among family members.

“Mr. Powell, my dad didn’t graduate from high school. He had an eighth grade education, but he had a lot of old sayings that were passed on through the family that I’ve always found to be wise,” Coss said. “One of the things he always used to tell me is ‘Son, actions speak louder than words.’ Your actions are what’s important here.”

Coss said there was “no reason” for Powell to have “morphine, which is a highly dangerous opioid,” in his possession, as the testimony at trial brought out that the prescription was in the name of another relative not living in the home.

The judge said “the big thing for me” and perhaps the jury was “the remorse didn’t kick in” for Powell upon finding the victim deceased. Coss quoted his father again repeatedly by using a phrase to the effect of “covering one’s behind.

“That was your first thought again, ‘cover my [behind],’” Coss said. “You immediately hide this medication. That also says that you knew what you gave [the victim]. It also says that you knew that it was what killed [the victim] and that the first thing you needed to do was take care of you. There was no immediate collapse.

“For me to lose one of my grandchildren, I can’t imagine even being able to remain conscious, let alone take the action that you did, which tells me, again, that it was more about you.”

Coss added that he was “not saying [Powell] didn’t love” the victim, and that while the defense attorney spoke of lack of intent, “that’s not what the law is.

“The law was that you acted recklessly,” Coss said. “The first recklessness was having the medicine there in the first place. The second is giving something to a child that [it] is not prescribed to.”

During the trial, a deputy coroner who performed the autopsy said that “a large amount” of morphine was present in the victim’s system, although Powell testified he gave the victim “a small amount” of what he believed was cough syrup.

“It certainly wasn’t a tiny dose, or [the victim] wouldn’t have died,” Coss said. “Then, you continued to compound and further your desire to cover your own [behind] by hiding this medicine, and then, on the day of your [grandchild’s] funeral, disposing of it, trashing it, so it couldn’t be found. You continued to lie to everybody about it.

“You knew all along what you’d done. You knew what killed [the victim]. You knew from the moment you saw [the victim] dead and ran to the medicine cabinet and got that what you were doing. You knew what happened, and your first thought was of yourself.”

Coss added that he does “believe that you are sorry” about losing a grandchild and that Powell loved the victim.

“But I think you’re more sorry for yourself,” Coss said. “You want the court to grant you leniency, but yet, what you have done doesn’t indicate that you are worthy of that.

“The coverup afterward, and keeping your children in the dark and the rest of your family in the dark about what you did, was a despicable act, a selfish act.”

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