Prosecution lacks physical evidence

‘We have a duty to society and to Jimmy,’ said the
prosecutor.

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — The live-in girlfriend of David Sharpe will be the key prosecution witness against him in a 2001 murder, but her testimony will be corroborated by other witnesses, a top prosecutor said.

David Sharpe is charged with murder in the 2001 drowning and dismemberment death of 15-year-old James P. Higham.

Jennifer Lynn Snyder will provide the main testimony against Sharpe, said Robert E. Bush Jr., chief of the criminal division in the Mahoning County prosecutor’s office.

He said Friday he has made no plea deal offers to Snyder in exchange for her testimony.

He said physical or scientific evidence, if any, will be minimal, and the prosecution’s case will rely on witnesses’ recall of events. Bush said he expects eight to 12 witnesses to testify for the prosecution.

“It’s a circumstantial case. ... You just have to build it block by block,” he said. “You have to tell the story as to what happened with Jimmy,” he said.

Witnesses will include those familiar with events at Higham’s residence and, possibly, school teachers, he said.

“I believe the state of Ohio can prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, but you’ve got to put all of the building blocks together,” he said. “It’s a challenge” to prosecute a case under these circumstances, he said.

“I feel we have enough [evidence] to convict if we put the case on properly, and also we have a duty to society and to Jimmy,” he said. “I don’t anticipate any physical evidence being developed or any additional testimonial evidence being developed. The case is pretty much what we’ve got now.”

Saying her conscience was bothering her, Snyder, who gave videotaped statements to police, has implicated Sharpe in the crime, Bush said. “Her testimony is going to be vital to the case,” Bush said. Almost all of the witnesses familiar with the case are still alive and available to testify, he added.

Higham’s remains are in a landfill and none have been found, Bush said Friday. Searches for blood at the reported murder scene shortly after Higham disappeared were negative, he recalled.

Sharpe, 44, of Pyatt Street, was indicted Thursday by the county grand jury on charges of murder, tampering with evidence, endangering children, permitting child abuse and gross abuse of a corpse. Police arrested him at his residence. His case was presented directly to the grand jury, and he will be arraigned at 9 a.m. Wednesday before Magistrate Wade Smith of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

The grand jury already had indicted Snyder, 34, in August on charges of tampering with evidence, abuse of a corpse, child endangering and permitting child abuse after she gave her statements to police.

Snyder, who is serving time in an unrelated case at the Ohio Reformatory for Woman at Marysville, has been returned to Mahoning County Jail because of her role in this case, Bush said.

Police believe Sharpe drowned the boy in a bathtub on or about June 15, 2001, after a confrontation at a Manchester Avenue residence where Snyder was then living.

The body was then dismembered and disposed of in a trash bin and several other places on the South Side. Snyder didn’t report Higham missing until Jan. 3, 2002.

Bush said he wasn’t aware of any weapon being used in the slaying of Higham, and he declined to discuss the motive for the homicide. Sharpe has made no statements to police about this case, Bush said.

Sharpe and Snyder had the boy with them after his parents split up. His mother had returned to her native Japan, and his father, who lives in the United States, gave custody of the boy to Snyder, a relative through marriage, authorities have said.

Capt. Kenneth Centorame, chief of detectives with the city police, said he doesn’t recall a homicide prosecution occurring here in the absence of the body.

“We can convict on a murder without a body. The case law allows that,” Bush said.

A murder conviction can be difficult, but it is possible in the absence of the corpse, said City Prosecutor Jay Macejko.

Typically, prosecutors would present evidence of sudden stoppage of the deceased’s normal life activity patterns, he said. The testimony of a single witness may be sufficient to convict if the jury finds that witness credible, Macejko added.