8 min read
A Hamilton County jury on Friday convicted Rodney Hinton Jr. of murder in the death of Special Deputy Larry Henderson, closing the courtroom chapter of one of the most painful cases Cincinnati has ever known.
Hinton, 40, was also convicted of two counts of reckless homicide and two counts of felonious assault. Jurors rejected his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Sentencing is set for November 16. On the murder conviction alone, Hinton faces a mandatory prison term of 15 years to life.
Major Takeaways
- A jury convicted Rodney Hinton Jr. of murder, reckless homicide and felonious assault in the death of Deputy Larry Henderson.
- Jurors declined to convict Hinton of aggravated murder, the most serious charge he faced.
- Henderson had no role in the police shooting that killed Ryan Hinton one day earlier.
- Sentencing is set for November 16, and the defense says it will appeal.
The Verdict Against Rodney Hinton Jr.
The verdict came on the third day of deliberations and ended a trial that ran 10 days in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.
Judge Jody Luebbers presided over the case. The jury of seven women and five men found that Hinton acted knowingly when he drove into Henderson on May 2, 2025.
On the two aggravated murder counts, jurors chose the lesser offense of reckless homicide. That choice spared Hinton a possible sentence of life in prison without the chance of parole.
Hinton did not testify. He was taken into custody after the verdict was read.
Assistant Prosecutor Kate Burroughs read a statement from the prosecution team. “Rodney Hinton Jr. will be held criminally responsible for his actions on May 2, 2025, that did not allow Deputy Henderson to return home that night,” she said.
Two Deaths in Two Days
The story began on May 1, 2025, in East Price Hill, where Cincinnati police were investigating a stolen vehicle at an apartment complex.
Four young men were inside the car. When officers moved in, all four ran.
Ryan Hinton, 18, was shot and killed by an officer during the chase. Another officer can be heard on video shouting that Ryan had a gun, and police recovered a firearm at the scene.
Police said Ryan pointed the gun at an officer. His family has disputed that account from the beginning, and the video by itself does not settle the question.
The next morning, police invited the Hinton family and their lawyers to department offices in the West End to watch body camera video of the shooting. Other families, including the family of Kohen Wiley in Mississippi, have described what it costs to sit in that room.
Hours later and about four miles away, Hinton drove across lanes on Martin Luther King Drive and into Henderson, who was working traffic control near the University of Cincinnati during commencement ceremonies.
Henderson was standing by a traffic signal box in uniform and a bright vest. He was rushed to a hospital blocks away and did not survive.
Prosecutors stressed one fact from the first day. Henderson wore a different badge. He was a county deputy, not a Cincinnati police officer, and he played no part in the shooting of Ryan Hinton.
The Deputy Who Came Back
Larry Ray Henderson Jr. was 57 years old. He served the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office for 33 years.
A Marine Corps veteran, he worked over his career as a bomb technician, a SWAT team member, a dive team member, an academy instructor and a school resource officer.
He retired in December 2024. Three days later he returned as a special deputy, because serving was simply what he did.
His wife, Lori Henderson, testified about their final exchange before he left for work. “He looked at me, and he said, ‘I love you,’ and I remember adding, I said back, ‘I love you too,’” she said.
Henderson is survived by his wife and five children. Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson said the verdict “accurately reflects the evidence in this case” and called Henderson a dedicated public servant whose death left a family shattered and a community grieving.
State lawmakers in the Ohio House have passed a bill to name a stretch of Interstate 275 in Hamilton County the Deputy Larry Henderson Memorial Highway.
The Trial Was About His Mind
No one in the courtroom disputed what Hinton did. The fight was over what was happening inside his mind when he did it.
The psychologists who evaluated Hinton agreed that he lives with serious mental illness. His diagnoses include schizoaffective disorder and bipolar disorder.
Earlier this year, the court took the death penalty off the table after both sides agreed his illness met the Ohio legal standard that bars capital punishment.
Defense expert Dr. Maria Espinola testified that watching his son die on video pushed Hinton into psychosis and dissociation, and that he could not understand his conduct was wrong.
His lawyer, Clyde Bennett II, told jurors Hinton was trying to kill himself and was aiming at a utility pole near where Henderson stood.
Prosecutors answered with the car itself. Its data showed Hinton accelerated from a stop to more than 43 miles per hour within seconds, with the accelerator pressed to 93.3 percent.
They said he waited for oncoming traffic to clear, then steered toward Henderson and turned his wheel the same direction the deputy moved as he tried to get away.
Hinton had told one psychologist that he turned the wheel a little bit to hit him. Asked if he was angry at police, he answered, “Not him particularly.”
Two psychologists for the prosecution, Dr. Jaime Adkins and Dr. Jennifer O’Donnell, acknowledged his illness. They testified he was not in a psychotic episode that kept him from knowing his actions were wrong.
“Everything that happened that day was in the driver’s hands,” Burroughs told jurors in closing.
The Shooting That Started It All
Friday’s verdict closes the second case. The first one was closed by a prosecutor’s decision, and for the Hinton family it has never felt closed at all.
In June 2025, Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich announced that the officer who shot Ryan Hinton would not face charges. She said Ryan carried a loaded gun and pointed it at the officer, and she ruled the shooting legally justified.
“I am the only person responsible for this decision,” Pillich said. She declined to present the case to a grand jury.
The family answered her in plain language. “How can you be threatened by someone running from you?” asked Marlyn Howard, Ryan’s cousin. “We miss you. We love you down here.”
Family attorney Fanon Rucker said the fight would move to civil court. “We did not see justice from the criminal justice system,” Rucker said. “But justice is still going to be obtained.”
The pattern reaches far beyond Cincinnati. This month in Mississippi, the officer who shot one year old Kohen Wiley was cleared by a state ruling and later resigned, leaving another family to carry its grief outside a courtroom.
For many Black families watching this case, it holds two truths at the same time. A son was killed by police and no officer was charged. A father answered that loss in a way that took another man’s life and shattered another family.
What Happens Next
Judge Luebbers will sentence Hinton on November 16 at 9 a.m. The murder conviction carries a mandatory term of 15 years to life in prison with the possibility of parole, and each reckless homicide count can add up to three more years.
Bennett said he will appeal within 30 days. Before reporters after the verdict, he apologized to his client by name. “I failed him. I am sorry, Rodney. I am sorry to the Hinton family, to the members of the community who supported me, and to everyone who prayed for me,” Bennett said. “But my fight for justice is not over.”
Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey said the verdict gave her deputies a measure of closure. “We can now all grieve and move forward with some finality,” she said. She called the whole case a tragedy, and one of Hinton’s own making.
Two families will carry May of 2025 for the rest of their lives. The court has now spoken on one of those losses. The other was never charged at all.
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