Jury deliberates one hour before finding man guilty of murdering boy, 3

By Ed Runyan | August 31, 2017 at 12:05a.m.

WARREN

A jury deliberated an hour Wednesday afternoon before finding Arthur Harper guilty of murder, felonious assault and child endangering in the death of Russell Cottrill, 3.

The jury in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court heard two full days of testimony, much of it from Warren Police Detective Nick Carney and a recorded interview Carney had with Harper.

Hours into the interview, Harper confessed he used a wrestling move on Russell called a piledriver that went wrong.

Harper, 45, of High Street Northeast, told the detective and his then-common-law wife that he made a “mistake” while “play rasslin’” with Russell that caused Russell’s head to hit the floor Nov. 28, 2015, in their home.

Initially, Harper said all he knew was that he heard a “thump” and found Russell unresponsive on Russell’s bedroom floor while the boy was taking a nap.

The boy suffered serious head trauma and died a few days later at a hospital. Russell was Harper’s common-law wife’s son.

Harper is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 25 after the county Adult Probation Department conducts a background investigation. The penalty for the type of murder Harper committed is 15 years to life in prison.

During testimony earlier Wednesday, Harper’s attorney, John Juhasz, asked Carney to clarify how much of the information Carney gave to Harper during the videotaped interview was factual and how much was false.

Carney said it was not true when Carney told Harper that Carney had taken a baseball bat from Harper’s home and had it tested for DNA, and it was not true when Carney told Harper he had “tracked” Harper’s cellphone.

Carney also said it was not true when Carney told Harper that Harper’s common-law wife was the most upset with Harper because he wouldn’t “man up” and admit what he had done to Russell.

Juhasz had sought before the trial to have the interview suppressed from evidence on the grounds that Carney’s interviewing techniques were coercive.

But the judge cited case law indicating a detective’s exaggerations about evidence and other deceit does not rise to the level of coercive tactics. Judge Kontos refused to suppress the interview.