CINCINNATI — The man accused of fatally stabbing Patrick Heringer, who co-owned a gym in Over-the-Rhine with his wife Sarah, is now facing 12 new charges after a grand jury report Monday morning.
The grand jury indicted 38-year-old Mordecia Black on 14 charges in total:
- Three counts of aggravated murder
- Five counts of murder
- Three counts of felonious assault
- Aggravated burglary
- Burglary
- Trespassing into a habitation
Previously, Black just faced one count of murder and one count of aggravated burglary. If convicted on all charges, Black could face life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In a statement sent in email, Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich called Sarah Heringer courageous, and promised to work with her to address "the obvious holes in our system."
Since her husband's death, Sarah Heringer has made repeated calls for Cincinnati officials to provide answers on why the suspect accused of murder was "walking free" after cutting his ankle monitor and committing a burglary earlier this year.
"The Heringers did everything society asked of them," Pillich wrote in her statement. "They followed the law. They invested in the urban core. They are beloved members of the Downtown and Over-the-Rhine communities. Mordecia Black coldly and ruthlessly murdered Patrick Heringer in Patrick's own home as Patrick tried to protect his wife, Sarah. Black should never see another day of freedom."
Pillich went on to say that Black cutting off his ankle monitor showed a lack of regard for the law. In his first court appearance, Mordecia Black's attorney said he was released from prison in January after serving his full term for felonious assault and rioting. Officials confirmed he cut off his ankle monitor just one month later while under post-release control.
"Sarah is courageous to speak out," Pillich's statement reads. "I promise to work with her to help resolve the obvious holes in our system — specifically in detention and apprehension of the violent criminals walking among us."
Last week, Sarah Heringer said she met with Mayor Aftab Pureval and Police Chief Teresa Theetge, who told her, "while they were aware that Patrick’s killer was out on parole, they were completely unaware that he had broken that parole — and that no one from the parole board had notified local authorities."
We reached out to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction and the Ohio Adult Parole Authority (APA), which told us Black was not on parole. The department's spokesperson provided information showing that Black served the entirety of his prison term for a 2016 conviction and was released in January 2025 under post-release control, which is different than parole.
The APA also told us that typical policy was followed after Black cut his ankle monitor during that post-release control, but the APA also said it would change that protocol moving forward.
"APA issued a nationwide arrest warrant less than 24 hours after Black left his halfway house and missed his weekly appointment with his parole officer," the APA wrote to WCPO in a statement. "All existing policies were followed in this circumstance, as primary notification to notify law enforcement agencies is the violator-at-large warrant being entered into Ohio's Law Enforcement Automated Data System (LEADS) and National Crime Information Center (NCIS)."
The agency said the purpose of the LEADS and NCIC databases is to facilitate the timely exchange of information between different law enforcement agencies.
It went on to say that ODRC Director Annette Chambers-Smith has directed the APA to change its current warrant entry policy to also include direct notification to a law enforcement agency when a warrant is issued on a targeted violent offender, "as a secondary and additional" notification to the one the arrest warrant is supposed to provide.
Still, the APA says Cincinnati police should have checked the LEADS and NCIC databases when they issued their own warrant for Black's arrest following a May 15 burglary that happened nearly one month before Patrick Heringer was stabbed.
"It is also relevant to point out that it is generally standard practice for law enforcement, upon entering a warrant into LEADS and NCIC, to check for other open warrants on a suspect," reads the statement. "In this particular circumstance, it can be reasonably assumed that local law enforcement would have, at the very least, been made aware of the APA's warrant at the time it issued Black's warrant for the May 15 incident."
A warrant was issued for Black on May 15 for the alleged burglary, but he was not arrested for that case until June 5, when police charged him with the murder of Patrick Heringer.
