Richey puts some blame for death on girl's family
Freed Ohio inmate recalls fire victim
By JIM PROVANCE
BLADE STAFF WRITER
LONDON — Kenny Richey said he fondly remembers “Scootie,’’ the 2-year-old girl whose death led to his imprisonment, but he said he believes one member of her family will burn in hell before he does.
In a trio of paid interviews in the United Kingdom published and aired for the first time yesterday, the now-free but admittedly bitter Richey again proclaimed his innocence and turned the words of members of young Cynthia Collins’ aunt last week back on her.
On Jan. 7, a crying Valerie Binkley, the child’s aunt, pointed directly at Richey in the Putnam County courtroom and told him, “You fooled nobody — not me, not that baby, not any of these people. You will burn in hell.”
She’ll burn before him, Richey told SkyTV in his first televised interview since his release.
“I’ve ... had my years in hell, 21 of them. It can’t get any worse,’’ he said.
In a three-page story appearing in the Mail on Sunday newspaper that focused heavily on his life for two decades on Ohio’s death row, Richey, 43, placed at least part of the blame for Cynthia’s death on her family.
“When Cynthia died 21 years ago, her family knew her mother was a drug addict, but what did they do to protect the little girl? Nothing,’’ he said. “So I think it’s rich that they feel that they have to say something when they weren’t around to help her when she needed them most and could have been taken away from the dangerous environment she was in.’’
Hope Collins, the girl’s mother who was divorced from the child’s father, had pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and was given a two-year suspended prison sentence soon after the fire.
None of the stories mentioned the fact that each media outlet had paid Richey and his family a combined estimated $60,000, or that they paid to sequester Richey, his Columbus Grove brother Steve, and their Scottish mother, Eileen, in a hotel outside Edinburgh upon his return to protect their investment.
Such financial arrangements are common among media in the United Kingdom. Smaller deals are expected as Richey hits the talk-show circuit, starting today.
Current Putnam County Prosecutor Gary Lammers said Richey’s attempt to point blame at the Collins family is “misdirected.’’
“I don’t know what involvement the family had in the child’s life,’’ he said. “The fire certainly wasn’t the father’s fault. The father was not present during the course of events that led up to the apartment burning. That’s misdirected.’’
The People, a tabloid in the United Kingdom, was the only one of the three media outlets to mention Richey’s “no-contest’’ pleas to charges of attempted involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment, and breaking and entering. The convictions essentially had him admitting that he had failed as the girl’s baby-sitter the night she died, although he has insisted outside the courtroom that he never agreed to watch the girl while her mother went off with a man to view fireworks.
‘I feel devastated’
“I feel devastated,’’ Richey told SkyTV. “If I hadn’t been drinking that night, I would have gone up there. Because I didn’t, in a way I feel kind of responsible.’’
His convictions for aggravated murder and aggravated arson were twice overturned by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, ruling that his defense lawyer at trial was ineffective in challenging what The People article called “dodgy’’ arson evidence.
The combined sentences for his pleas last week reached 21 years, slightly less than the time he has spent in Ohio prisons for murder and arson. He was immediately released as the prosecution dropped the murder and arson charges as part of the plea bargain.
The prosecution had maintained that a jealous Richey set the fire to kill an ex-girlfriend, but unintentionally killed the child in the apartment upstairs.
In his SkyTV interview, Richey said his threat to cut the throat of Common Pleas Judge Randall Basinger, assistant prosecutor at the time of his trial, hurt his cause and increased resistance to his release.
‘A fit of anger’
“I hate the man with a vengeance…,’’ he said. “I don’t regret saying it, but I just said it in a fit of anger.’’
When a visiting judge ultimately approved the plea deal, an order was attached that he leave Putnam County and not return for at least five years.
Richey finally moved yesterday into his mother’s flat in the central Edinburgh community of Dalry, released from his exclusivity obligations. He’s trying to master a new cell phone, something he’s never used before.
He could not be reached for comment by The Blade, but his former fiancée and advocate, Karen Torley, of Glasgow, said she heard from him for the first time yesterday since his return to Scotland on Wednesday.
“His bedroom is actually smaller than his cell,’’ she said. “His mother’s house is very tiny. Only one person can sit in the kitchen.’’
Yesterday’s interviews revealed little about Richey’s stay on death row, its effects on his health, suicide attempts, and past crimes that hadn’t already been chronicled in The Blade and other Ohio media.
But he alleged he was once gassed and beaten by guards along with other inmates during a riot on his cellblock. He said he believed the armed correctional officers were intent on killing the inmates.
Richey also revealed that he will remarry his ex-wife, Wendy, who plans to relocate to Scotland from Minnesota. They have a 22-year-old son, Sean, who is in trouble with the law in Minnesota.
In The People article, Richey described sleeping with Wendy on his first night of freedom on the floor of brother Steve’s Cloverdale home.
Mr. Lammers said he has not followed the events in Scotland since Richey returned there.
“It’s distasteful that a person who is responsible for the death of a child is being rewarded for that,’’ he said. “It’s a sad representation of what British society has become, especially for the media to sensationalize this type of story.’’
Contact Jim Provance at: jprovance@theblade.com, or 614-221-0496.
Oh, Great Spirit, grant that I may not criticize my neighbor until I have walked a mile in his moccasins." - Old Indian Prayer My dad told me!! |
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