Felony Homicide Charges Dropped by Prosecution in Ralph Ennis Death Trial

(Writer’s Note: a wording correction on the remaining charges against the defendants has been made in paragraph 6, changing “Homicide” to “Wounding” as noted in paragraph 1.)

In an unexpected development to open day four of the connected criminal trials of former Warren County Sheriff’s Office Deputies Zachary Fadely and Tyler Poe related to the April 2022 death of 77-year-old dementia victim Ralph Ennis, the prosecution announced the dropping of the Felony Homicide charges against both defendants. The trial continues on the remaining charges of Unlawful Wounding against Poe and Malicious Wounding against Fadely.

In opening the proceedings just after the 9 a.m. convening of court before the jury was brought into the courtroom Friday, February 7, lead Special Prosecutor Matthew Sweet announced the altered prosecution. He explained that in the wake of a post-court conversation with proposed prosecution medical expert witness doctor Constance D’Angelo the previous day, the doctor had admitted a possible error in judgment in citing the injuries incurred by Ralph Ennis described in the Autopsy Report and a Neuro-Pathology Report she referenced, as being the result of a homicide.

The doctor’s out-of-court conversation with prosecution attorneys came following her trial questioning the previous day while the jury was dismissed from the courtroom due to defense objections to her admission as a witness.

Defense counsel William “Beau” Bassler (Fadely) and Justin Daniel (Poe) had both objected to D’Angelo’s admittance as an expert witness, noting she had performed no direct examination of Ralph Ennis’s wounds or body after death. Rather, relying on the above-cited medical reports of other physicians, as well as information in the $6-million civil suit brought by the Ennis family.

And while it appeared D’Angelo would be allowed to testify in a limited way from direct knowledge of the referenced medical reports and photos of Ennis, her out-of-court admission to prosecutors led them to re-access aspects of their prosecution in that regard.

However, when defense counsel tried to push acknowledgment of the Coroner’s Office’s conclusion that Ennis died of “natural causes,” the prosecution deferred. Lead prosecutor Sweet offered the alternative that the prosecution has evidence Ennis died “as a result of the attack by the two officers.” Hence, the remaining charges of Unlawful Wounding (Poe) and Malicious Wounding (Fadely). The court rejected both defense counsel’s motions to have those remaining charges dismissed against their clients as well.

Also, on Thursday afternoon, after listening to defense objections and prosecution responses, as well as Dr D’Angelo’s trial questioning, Judge Clark Ritchie told attorneys, “She can say injury caused Ennis’s death, but not that it was a homicide.”

In the wake of her trial run direct and cross-examinations on Thursday, and with the court’s ruling on the testimony, the prosecution called another witness, Pastor Peter Kennedy, in D’Angelo’s place to close that day’s testimony. Pastor Kennedy, a friend of prosecution witness Ralph Waller, who knew Ralph Ennis through Waller, was questioned on his perceptions of Ralph Ennis’s health and demeanor. The pastor said that around the 2019 time frame, he thought Ennis’s general state was “good for his age.”

However, by 2022, concerns had begun to creep in about his clarity on a number of things, the pastor admitted. On direct examination, Pastor Kennedy noted that when he first visited Ennis on April 9 in the hospital following the April 2, 2022, confrontation with law enforcement, he had seemed alert and unconfused. However, on a second visit several days later, Pastor Kennedy said Ennis seemed to have declined, “He slept the entire time I was there,” he observed.

Once the jury was called into the courtroom at 9:30 a.m., Judge Ritchie explained the adjusted prosecution to them and the trial reconvened. The prosecution then rested its case. That led to the opening of the defense cases and the calling of their initial witnesses for the balance of the day’s trial.