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Judge holds Warren man without bond in death of boy, 3
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
A Warren Municipal Court judge on Thursday ordered that Arthur A. Harper, 43, be held in the Trumbull County jail without eligibility to make bond.
The judge entered a not-guilty plea to Harper’s felony child-endangering charge and said Harper is not eligible for bond because he is a flight risk.
Harper is charged in the death of his girlfriend’s son, Russell Cottrill, 3, who was unresponsive Saturday evening in the High Street Northeast home where he lived with his mother and Harper.
The boy died in a Cleveland hospital Wednesday of “severe head trauma,” Warren police said.
The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s office said an autopsy was performed Thursday, but no ruling on the cause and manner of death has been made. A spokesman said he didn’t know the reason why a ruling is not available or how long it will be, but he said the spelling of the boy’s last name is Cottrill, not the spelling given by Warren police.
Harper could face additional charges depending on the results of the autopsy, police said.
Harper will remain in jail until his preliminary hearing at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Judge Terry Ivanchak said.
Matt Pentz from the Ohio Public Defender’s Office stood next to Harper during his video arraignment from the Trumbull County jail and said Harper recently had become a Warren resident.
A High Street neighbor said Wednesday that Harper had been living with the boy and his mother since the summertime. Police listed Harper’s address as being in Mansfield. For employment, the jail listed Harper as disabled. He is being held in a jail isolation pod.
Harper posted a message on his girlfriend’s Facebook page Monday evening, saying of Russell, “rip and u will be loved and miss by everyone.”
His girlfriend posted Wednesday that doctors harvested Russell’s heart, kidney and liver. “I just got word from Cleveland that my son will save three [lives],” she said.
It’s unclear what day Russell died, with the boy’s mother saying it occurred Monday and police saying he died Wednesday. The Cuyahoga County Coroner’s Office said he died Monday.
Warren police told 21 WFMJ-TV, The Vindicator’s broadcast partner, that they interviewed Harper for about two hours Wednesday before charging him and taking him to the jail.
On a 911 call at 6:38 p.m. Saturday, Harper said Russell was upstairs in his room lying down, and Harper heard a “thump,” and the boy was then unresponsive.
Police would not discuss what Harper told them in his interview. A doctor at the Cleveland hospital where Russell was taken called police Sunday, saying the boy “is not going to make it, and it looks like it will be a homicide.”
If his death is ruled a homicide, it will be the fourth one in Warren this year.