3-year-old's mom: 'I would be shocked' if death not an accident

WARREN

Judith Owens, mother of Russell Cottrill, says her son loved her common-law husband, Arthur Harper, “and Art loved him. There was no question in my mind.”

She remembers times when she and Russell would return to their High Street Northeast home, and the ever-energetic Russell would run in the house to Harper and say, “Daddy, Daddy,” Owens said. Russell would have turned 4 in a week.

Harper, 43, is now in the Trumbull County jail, charged with felony child endangering after he called 911 last Saturday evening to report that Russell was unresponsive. The boy died Monday in a Cleveland hospital after suffering what a Warren police detective called “severe head trauma.”

A ruling on the cause and manner of death is pending in Cuyahoga County.

Owens said she is reserving judgment on what caused her son’s death, saying: “I try not to judge people, regardless of the outcome. That’s just me. This thing in particular, [Harper] is going to have to live with the rest of his life,” adding later: “We all make mistakes.”

“If it turned out not to be an accident, I would be shocked,” Owens said of Russell’s death.

Read more of what she had to say about her son, and Harper in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.