Rachel Richardson

rrichardson@cincinnati.com

A Warren County teenager who killed a childhood friend and dumped his body in Preble County will become Ohio's youngest inmate on death row after a judge Thursday sentenced him to death.

Warren County Common Pleas Court Judge Donald Oda sentenced Austin Myers, 19, in the Jan. 28 robbery and murder of 18-year-old Justin Back, a 2013 Waynesville High School graduate who was set to enter the U.S. Navy the week after his death.

"You have no respect for death," Oda told Myers, who displayed no emotion upon the reading of the sentence.



A Warren County jury last week recommended Myers be put to death after convicting him of aggravated murder, kidnapping, aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, grand theft of a firearm, tampering with evidence, safe cracking and abuse of a corpse.

Prosecutors said Myers orchestrated a plot with co-defendant Timothy Mosley, 19, to rob and kill Back at the Wayne Township home he shared with his parents.

Authorities said Myers and Mosley visited Back at his home on Corwin Road Jan. 28 and watched movies with him before attacking him in the kitchen. Investigators said they tried to choke Back before Mosley stabbed him 21 times as Myers watched and ignored his pleas for help.

Mosley and Myers then took a gun, a safe and some of Back's clothing from the home to make it look like Back had run away. They dumped Back's body in Preble County.

Myers' family and attorneys pleaded with the court to consider Myers' age, lack of criminal history and tumultuous childhood and instead grant him life in prison without parole.

They also pointed to a plea agreement struck between Mosley – who they argued was the principal offender in the crime -- and prosecutors that removed the death penalty from his possible sentence in exchange for testifying against Myers during the trial.

Myers, who last week pleaded for his life on behalf of his parents and five younger siblings, made only a brief statement to the judge.

"I've made a horrible mistake. I'm only 19 years old. I think that there's a lot of good things I can do with my life if you let me keep my life," he said.

Oda called Mosley's plea agreement a "troublesome mitigating factor," but ultimately decided Myers orchestrated the crime and was therefore equally culpable for Back's murder.

"It was Myers who selected Justin Back as a victim. Without Mr. Myers, I don't think that Mr. Mosley had any real disposition to kill, certainly not to kill Justin Back," the judge said.

Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said that while he thought Mosley also deserving of the death penalty, his office struck the deal with him in order to better secure a death penalty conviction for Myers.

Mosley's testimony allowed prosecutors to introduce evidence that might otherwise have been excluded as hearsay in Myers' trial. And while prosecutors don't have to prove motive to establish someone committed a crime, juries often want to know the "why," he explained.

"I knew there was no possibility from my perspective of getting the death penalty against Austin if we weren't able to say why," said Fornshell. "Tim Mosley gave us the ability to tell why."

Fornshell said Mosley's attorney contacted his office regarding a plea deal after a judge denied a flurry of motions to exclude evidence in his case. He said that unlike Myers, Mosley remained cooperative throughout the process, offered up corroborating evidence for his testimony and took responsibility for his actions.

"Tim Mosley, in many ways, earned his plea," said Fornshell. "Austin Myers, at no point in this case, had any interest whatsoever in anything short of dismissing all the charges."

Fornshell said Myers remained "defiant to the end." He points to a recorded jailhouse phone conversation that took place between Myers and his father during the trial.

"He agreed that his plea agreement would be, if we dismissed all charges against him, that he wouldn't sue me for wrongful imprisonment. That is how completely out of reality he was in this case," said Fornshell.

The prosecutor said that what initially began as a planned robbery quickly became a motive to kill. Within 15 minutes of killing Back, Fornshell said Myers took $100 from the slain boy's wallet and told Mosley he planned to use the cash to retrieve a gun he had pawned.

Myers planned to use both that gun and a gun he stole from Back's stepfather to kill his mother and stepfather, Fornshell said. A judge excluded evidence of the plot from Myers' trial, saying it indicated evidence of a future crime and wasn't relevant to the planning of Back's murder.

"At some point, the switch flipped and he wanted to kill," said Fornshell of Myers.

Back's parents, Barney Back and Sandy Cates, delivered victim impact statements in which they painted a picture of a caring boy nicknamed "Bacon Bits" by friends and family, who always looked out for underdogs and even tried to help his killers.

"I will never get to see my son fall in love, get married and have grandchildren," Barney Back told Myers. "You have devastated two families, a community and countless friends. I would just hope that every time you close your eyes at night, you see my Justin, you hear his voice."

Myers now becomes the youngest person on Ohio's death row. Myers, who turns 20 on Jan. 4, is about five years younger than the youngest death row inmate currently.