35-year-old Matthew Smith was sentenced to life in prison after the judge returned guilty counts on all 26 charges in his case. Smith was found guilty of 17 counts of rape -- five counts of sexual battery -- and four counts of gross sexual imposition. Judge Jeffrey Reed proceeded to sentencing after reading the verdicts. The Five sexual battery charges were merged with the rape charges for sentencing. Judge reed placed sentences in the three cases that Smith faced.
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At the start of the trial, they reduced the number of charges Smith was facing from 83 to 26. Members of the Lima Police Department testified first to talk about how their investigation started, and videos and photos found on two cellphones that were discovered during a search warrant of Smith’s home.
34-year-old Matthew Smith has waived the right to a jury trial and instead, he will have a bench trial. Smith was charged with 69 counts of rape. He is also charged with 4 counts of gross sexual imposition and 10 counts of sexual battery. According to the indictment, the victims' ages range from 8-years-old to 13-years-old at the time of the alleged sexual assaults, which started in March of 2019 and ran until September of 2020.
Matthew Smith's lawyer is asking the judge to toss statements the three young female victims made to forensic interviewers that work for Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus. He argues that since detectives from the Lima Police Department didn’t conduct the interviews themselves those statements can’t be used in Smith’s trial. The judge will watch the interview and rule later if they will be able to be used or not.
An Allen County Grand Jury returned their November indictments with a couple of cases we have been following.
Devon Ketzenberger has been indicted on aggravated murder, murder, aggravated arson and felonious assault. Ketzenberger is alleged to have started the house fire that killed his mother, Wendy Ketzenberger.
The house fire was spotted about 4 a.m. on Sept. 19. The Auglaize County Sheriff’s Office told Lima Police they had Ketzenberger in custody. They say he walked from his mothers home at 113 N. Woodlawn Ave. to a house in Auglaize County. Whoever he spoke to at the house was alarmed and called law enforcement.