A murder trial is back on in Putnam County after a lengthy appellate process.
Travis Soto is the man in question and his pre-trial today(11/25/19) was for housekeeping matters. But after speaking with the prosecutor on the case, it won’t be resolved any time soon. Soto appeared, once again, in Putnam County Common Pleas Court to put a few things on the record. Soto was represented by two new attorneys. They decided to keep a speedy time waiver he signed in 2016 in place. The judge also went over the Ohio Supreme Court’s decision that came down this month.
In 2006, Soto told police he accidentally ran over his 2-year-old son with an ATV. He took a plea deal, pleaded guilty to child endangerment and served five years in prison. In 2016, Soto walked into the sheriff’s office confessing to beating the child to death.
"As a result of those statements, we decided to pursue additional charges which gave rise to five new counts of which they challenged and appealed whether that was appropriate to proceed on those charges," said Gary Lammers, Putnam County Prosecutor.
After a two-year appeals process, the supreme court ruled in favor of the state saying the new charges do not amount to double jeopardy. So here we are today. Soto now facing charges of aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault, kidnapping and tampering with evidence. 13 years into the case and the prosecutor says it kind of feels like they are back to the beginning.
"To some degree. It was—I mean we were ready to proceed when we filed the indictment back in 2016 but obviously, there are processes that can come in to play, as happened in this case," Lammers said
Lammers added the judge is viewing this as a death penalty case because of the age of the child and the aggravated murder charge. Soto has a pre-trial on Dec. 19, 2019.
