CINCINNATI — The state rested its case Tuesday in the trial of Rodney Hinton Jr., the man accused of intentionally driving into and killing Hamilton County Sheriff's Deputy Larry Henderson. Now, on day seven, the defense continues to argue that Hinton was legally insane at the time of the crash.
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On Wednesday, the defense asked the judge to consider a lesser charge, specifically reckless homicide. The judge did not immediately rule on the request.
Prosecutors expressed concern that the defense was raising the issue at this stage of the trial and asked for time to review it. The judge agreed and said the matter would be revisited later in the afternoon.
Hinton sister said on Tuesday that she pleaded with Cincinnati police not to show her brother video of his 18-year-old son's fatal shooting, warning officers that he was struggling with his mental health.
Hours later, Hinton drove his car into Henderson, killing him.
On Tuesday, Hinton's sister recounted that warning in court as the prosecution rested its case and the defense began presenting testimony aimed at proving Hinton was legally insane at the time of the crash.
His father described years of deteriorating behavior, including psychiatric treatment and an episode in which he found his son walking naked down the street.
A forensic psychologist detailed Hinton's history of serious mental illness, childhood trauma and previous psychiatric diagnoses.
The testimony marked a significant shift on the sixth day of Hinton's murder trial. After days of eyewitness accounts, crash reconstruction evidence and testimony about Henderson's death, jurors began hearing the defense's explanation for Hinton's actions.
Hinton has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in Henderson's May 2, 2025, death.
Prosecutors argue Hinton deliberately targeted Henderson after watching body camera footage of Cincinnati police fatally shooting his son, Ryan Hinton, the previous day.
The defense does not dispute that Hinton's vehicle struck and killed Henderson. Instead, attorneys argue his severe mental illness, compounded by the trauma of losing his son, prevented him from understanding the wrongfulness of his actions.
Sister says she warned police before Hinton watched son's death
Keyaira Hinton, Rodney Hinton's older sister, testified that she met her brother and other relatives at Cincinnati police headquarters on Linn Street on the morning of May 2, 2025.
The family had gathered to review body camera footage of Ryan Hinton's fatal shooting.
Keyaira, a certified medical assistant who testified that she regularly encounters patients with mental health conditions, said she noticed something unusual about her brother almost immediately.
He was unusually quiet, she said, and appeared to be looking through her rather than directly at her.
"I describe it as like a vacant look," she testified.
She said the expression reminded her of patients she had encountered through her work.
As the family waited to view the footage, she said her brother began punching a wall and window.
But she insisted he did not appear angry.
"No, he wasn't angry," she testified. "I grabbed him and said it will be OK, and he said, 'OK.'"
She described his expression afterward as glossy and disconnected.
Keyaira said she became increasingly concerned when she learned her brother would watch the footage without relatives accompanying him.
"My brother has a mental health issue. He should not go watch that video," she recalled telling the officers and others gathered nearby.
She said she was crying as she tried to explain her concerns.
"No one said nothing, nothing, nothing," she testified.
According to Keyaira, she asked whether police could at least wait for their father to arrive so Rodney would not have to watch the footage alone.
She said that request was not granted.
When Hinton left the room, his sister testified that he looked past his relatives and headed toward the elevator.
"He looked right past us, like we wasn't even standing there," she said.
She characterized his behavior as a mental disconnect rather than anger.
During cross-examination, prosecutors challenged the extent of her concerns and what she did afterward.
Keyaira acknowledged she went to work that day and did not accompany her brother to Findlay Market, his cousin's home or back to his vehicle before the crash.
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She maintained that she had alerted police to his condition and had gone to headquarters intending to support him.
Prosecutors also questioned her about the timing of earlier mental health concerns she had described, noting that some dated back several years before Henderson's death.
Father describes years of troubling behavior
Rodney Hinton Sr. became the defense's first witness after prosecutors rested their case Tuesday.
He testified that he began noticing changes in his son's behavior around 2021, when the two were working together. Hinton Sr. said his son began staring into space, struggling with everyday tasks and lacking the energy to work.
"I'd say it was 2021 when I seen his brain changing," he testified.
The elder Hinton said his son eventually stopped working after missing too many days. He also told jurors that mental illness ran in the family, including a brother who has schizophrenia.
One of the most troubling episodes, he testified, occurred in 2023 when he found Rodney walking down a street without clothing.
Hinton Sr. said he stopped his vehicle, gave his son something to wear and urged him to get inside.
According to his testimony, Rodney explained his behavior by saying it was how Jesus wanted him to walk.
The incident prompted his father to seek additional psychiatric treatment.
Hinton Sr. testified that his son spent approximately a week to a week and a half at Atrium Medical Center. He also described arranging counseling in Middletown and trying to connect him with services through Hope House.
Although his son appeared somewhat improved after hospitalization, Hinton Sr. said he continued to notice signs that something was wrong.
"He had that look in his eyes, still like he's lost," he testified.
The father said he also saw that expression on May 2, 2025, after Rodney watched the body camera footage of Ryan's death.
He described his son as distraught and confused, not angry.
But prosecutors questioned how much the elder Hinton could reliably say about his son's mental condition immediately before the crash.
Hinton Sr. acknowledged that he had more frequent contact with Rodney when they lived together in earlier years than in 2024 and 2025, when his son was living with his wife.
He testified that he continued seeing Rodney during visits.
Prosecutors also asked whether Rodney had ever told him he intended to die by suicide on the day Henderson was killed.
He said no.
In another exchange, prosecutors questioned Hinton Sr. about jailhouse conversations with his son following his arrest, including discussions about raising money and obtaining a mental health expert.
Hinton Sr. acknowledged discussing the importance of an expert evaluation but said he wanted a professional assessment rather than relying on his own observations.
Psychologist details previous diagnoses and psychiatric treatment
The defense's third witness, forensic psychologist Dr. Maria Espinola, provided jurors with a clinical perspective on Hinton's mental health history.
Espinola testified that she diagnosed Hinton with schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type, a serious condition involving symptoms of both mood disorders and psychosis.
She explained that psychotic symptoms can include hallucinations and delusions that interfere with a person's perception of reality. A person experiencing psychosis, she testified, may believe something is appropriate or justified even when it is not.
Espinola also explained that symptoms are not always obvious to people around someone experiencing them.
She testified that individuals with paranoia may conceal their experiences because they believe other people intend to harm them.
The psychologist said she reviewed Hinton's previous medical records, which documented psychiatric diagnoses in 2023.
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Those included atypical psychosis, generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder and schizoaffective disorder, depressive type.
Espinola said Hinton had been hospitalized for psychiatric reasons in 2023 after his father found him naked in the street. She testified that drug testing at the time did not reveal evidence of substance use.
The records also showed that Hinton had been prescribed Risperdal, an antipsychotic medication, from June 2023 through May 2024.
Espinola explained that medication is important in treating serious psychiatric illnesses and that symptoms can worsen when patients stop taking prescribed treatment.
She did not establish during Tuesday's testimony whether Hinton was taking that medication on the day of the crash.
Espinola also discussed the role she believes childhood trauma played in Hinton's psychiatric condition.
She testified that Hinton had a family history of serious mental illness, was born prematurely and experienced extensive adversity while growing up.
According to her evaluation, those experiences included emotional neglect, physical abuse, parental incarceration, family separation and exposure to substance abuse.
Espinola said out of 10 possibilities, she identified eight categories of adverse childhood experiences in Hinton's history.
She explained that repeated childhood trauma can affect brain development and increase the risk of developing psychotic disorders.
"I think that there was a genetic component there," Espinola testified. "He has a family history of severe mental illness."
She also pointed to the extensive trauma Hinton experienced throughout childhood and continuing stressors during adulthood.
Espinola testified that the loss of Ryan was especially significant because Hinton described his son's death as the worst traumatic experience of his life.
She said the combination of longstanding psychiatric illness and trauma was central to her evaluation of his mental state.
What it means to be not guilty by reason of insanity
Espinola explained to jurors that having a serious mental illness does not automatically mean someone is legally insane.
"Insanity is a legal term, not a clinical term," she testified.
Under Ohio's legal standard, the question is whether a person, because of a severe mental disease or defect, was unable to understand the wrongfulness of their actions at the time of the offense.
Espinola said her evaluation was intended to determine both Hinton's psychiatric diagnoses and whether those conditions affected his ability to distinguish right from wrong when he struck Henderson.
She testified that she conducted more than 10 hours of clinical interviews with Hinton, interviewed four other sources for more than eight hours, reviewed more than 1,400 pages of records and more than four hours of video, and administered five psychological assessments.
Those interviewed included Hinton's father, sister, cousin and wife.
Espinola's testimony Tuesday primarily addressed her methodology,
Hinton's psychiatric history and the effects of serious mental illness.
Her testimony had not yet reached a complete explanation of her ultimate opinion about whether Hinton met Ohio's legal standard for insanity at the moment of the collision.
She is expected to continue testifying Wednesday.
Crash expert says Hinton deliberately steered toward deputy
Before the defense began calling witnesses Tuesday, jurors heard additional testimony from Cincinnati police crash reconstruction specialist Mike Flamm.
Flamm walked the jury through video footage of the crash frame by frame and explained data recovered from Hinton's Ford Focus.
He testified that the vehicle accelerated from a stop to nearly 50 mph in approximately five seconds.
The accelerator reached more than 93% of its available input during the approach, he said.
"The car was accelerating as hard as it could go," Flamm testified.
Flamm calculated that Hinton's vehicle was traveling approximately 44 mph when it struck Henderson. According to his analysis, Hinton remained in control of the vehicle and made deliberate steering adjustments.
Flamm said Henderson had only a fraction of a second to react as the car approached.
The deputy began moving to escape, but Flamm testified that Hinton turned the steering wheel in the same direction.
"The defendant puts a steering input, turns it in the same direction, not towards the pole, but towards Deputy Henderson," Flamm testified.
Flamm said the timing of the steering movement was particularly significant because it coincided with Henderson's attempt to get out of the vehicle's path.
He concluded that Hinton intentionally drove toward the deputy.
Defense attorney Clyde Bennett challenged that conclusion during cross-examination.
Bennett emphasized that the vehicle struck a utility pole near Henderson before the collision with the deputy, questioning whether Hinton's intended target was actually the pole.
The defense raised the possibility that Hinton was attempting to take his own life.
Flamm rejected that explanation, arguing that the vehicle's path, the glancing nature of the pole impact and Hinton's steering movements were inconsistent with an attempt to deliberately crash head-on into the pole.
He also pointed to Hinton's apparent decision to wait for oncoming traffic to clear before accelerating, which Flamm viewed as inconsistent with suicidal intent.
Bennett challenged whether that assessment was supported by scientific calculations or Flamm's personal experience.
"I think it's based on more of a lay opinion of years of experience of dealing with people's driving," Flamm responded.
Bennett also highlighted that Flamm's report described Hinton keeping the vehicle on an intended path but did not explicitly identify whether that intended path was the pole or Henderson.
Flamm acknowledged that distinction while maintaining that the steering and video evidence supported his conclusion that Henderson was the target.
Earlier testimony detailed the collision and its aftermath
Tuesday's testimony built on several days of evidence about the collision near the University of Cincinnati.
On Friday, eyewitness Patricia Povlitz testified that she saw Hinton's car strike a utility pole before hitting Henderson.
"I saw the car first hit the lamp post very hard, and it bounced to the left, and that's when it hit Deputy Henderson," she testified.
Her description became a focus of the defense's questioning about whether Henderson was the intended target.
Her husband, David Povlitz, testified that he rushed to help Henderson after hearing the crash and performed CPR until firefighters arrived.
He recalled hearing another deputy pleading with Henderson to hang on.
Jurors also heard from UC graduate student Saikat Das, who described a brief, friendly interaction with Henderson shortly before the crash.
Das testified that Henderson reassured him he had time to cross the street safely because the deputy was controlling traffic.
Approximately a minute later, Das heard a loud crash and turned to see Henderson on the ground.
Other witnesses described hearing Hinton's vehicle accelerate without any apparent braking before the collision.
Cincinnati police homicide Detective Carl Beebe testified that investigators examined hundreds of pieces of video evidence to reconstruct Hinton's movements.
The investigation also focused on the connection between Henderson's death and the fatal police shooting of Hinton's son the previous day.
During cross-examination, Beebe acknowledged that investigators could not know with certainty what Hinton was thinking as he approached the intersection.
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Thursday's witnesses described acceleration without braking
Friday's testimony followed an emotional day in court Thursday, when multiple witnesses described the crash and the moments immediately afterward.
Kevin Broermann testified that he was stopped in heavy traffic near UC when a car sped past him in the left-turn lane.
Broermann was talking to his wife on the phone when he witnessed the collision.
"Oh my God, he hit the cop!" Broermann recalled saying.
He testified that his window was down, but he did not hear screeching tires or other sounds suggesting the driver attempted to stop.
Broermann ran to Henderson, checked for a pulse and tried to get help.
Derek Moore, an equipment operator for UC's grounds department, also described hearing a car accelerate at full throttle before the collision.
Moore testified that he initially wondered whether the driver was experiencing a medical emergency.
"There was no braking," Moore told jurors.
He said he saw Henderson thrown into the air after the impact.
Cincinnati police Officer Kyle Cole also became emotional while describing his efforts to perform CPR on Henderson.
Prosecutors played footage from Cole's body-worn camera showing the emergency response. Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Jody Luebbers asked that the most graphic portion showing Henderson's body be skipped.
Hinton's cousin feared he might harm himself before crash
Some of Thursday's most significant testimony came from Hinton's cousin, Monique Gilliam, who described spending several hours with him before Henderson was killed.
Gilliam, who asked not to be filmed, told jurors she and Hinton were close and generally saw each other at family gatherings.
On the morning of May 2, 2025, she met Hinton and other relatives at Cincinnati police headquarters on Linn Street, where the family had gathered to review body camera footage of Ryan Hinton's fatal shooting.
Gilliam said she stayed in the lobby and did not watch the footage herself.
Afterward, she described consoling Hinton, standing beside him and holding his arm at times.
She said Hinton made comments that caused her to fear for his safety.
"He had said to tell our kids that he loved them and that he loved us, and I was concerned because I felt like he was bidding us farewell," Gilliam testified.
When prosecutors asked whether she believed Hinton might be having thoughts of self-harm, she answered, "I did."
Concerned about his well-being, Gilliam said she suggested Hinton spend time with her and her children before returning home.
Hinton agreed, leaving his car at the police station and riding with Gilliam and their aunt, Marquita Robinson, Gilliam said.
They stopped at Findlay Market before going to Gilliam's home. Gilliam said she hoped seeing photographs of their relatives displayed at the market might help Hinton feel better.
She testified that Hinton remained calm and did not indicate that he was hearing voices.
At her home, Gilliam said she sat with Hinton in the courtyard.
"I don't know about this, cuz," she recalled him saying.
Hinton later said he was tired and went inside to rest.
After waking from a nap, Gilliam said he appeared more rested and told her, "I'm ready to go home."
She testified that she was no longer concerned he might harm himself at that moment.
Gilliam and Robinson drove Hinton back to police headquarters to retrieve his vehicle. Although nothing during the drive raised additional concerns, the two women decided to follow him to make sure he arrived home safely.
Gilliam testified that Hinton initially pulled away from police headquarters before returning to the parking lot.
She said she called him to ask what he was doing, and he told her he had forgotten something.
Hinton eventually left again, with Gilliam and Robinson following in another vehicle.
Gilliam said his driving did not initially appear erratic. But as they reached Clifton, she began to get the impression Hinton was trying to lose them.
She described him becoming agitated and inching forward into a crosswalk at a red light.
The women continued following him onto Martin Luther King Drive.
Gilliam testified that Hinton appeared to prepare for a left turn onto Burnet Woods Drive but hesitated and moved back toward the center lane.
She tapped her horn and raised her hands, gesturing as if to ask where he was going. That was when Hinton accelerated, she testified.
From her vantage point, Gilliam said Hinton drove straight toward a utility pole. She testified that she did not see him brake or swerve.
Her view was partially obstructed by Hinton's vehicle, and she did not see the car strike Henderson.
She saw the vehicle hit the pole.
Gilliam then got out of her car and ran to Hinton's driver's side, where she saw Henderson lying on the ground and Hinton unconscious inside his vehicle.
Trial turns to question of legal responsibility
With the prosecution's case complete, jurors must now consider a different kind of evidence.
The state has presented eyewitness accounts, crash reconstruction analysis, video evidence and testimony about Hinton's movements before the collision.
The defense is presenting relatives and a mental health expert who described years of psychiatric symptoms and treatment, along with the emotional impact of his son's death.
Three psychologists evaluated Hinton in connection with his insanity defense. According to prosecutors' opening statements, two concluded he did not meet Ohio's legal standard for insanity.
Jurors must determine whether Hinton's mental condition prevented him from understanding the wrongfulness of his conduct at the time Henderson was killed.
Espinola is expected to return to the witness stand Wednesday as the defense continues presenting its case.
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