WAPAKONETA — The daughter of a man beaten to death to try to prevent his testimony in a criminal case turned to one of the men responsible Thursday and told him to try to make something of his life.
“What I want you to do is do something for somebody else. You may have to do it from behind bars but make a difference in someone else’s life,” said Melanie Hicks, the daughter of murder victim Charles Hicks.
She was speaking to Joseph Furry, the final of three men to be sentenced to life in prison with the chance for parole after serving 30 years for his role in the killing.
Hicks was beaten to death inside his apartment in Uniopolis on June 9, 2014. He had crushing injuries to the front of his neck that led to suffocating.
Furry looked at Melanie Hicks as she spoke and nodded his head in acknowledgement when she urged him to help someone. He later apologized to her telling her the events that day spiraled out of control leading to the death of her father.
“I did try to stop the events,” he said.
Furry also asked Auglaize County Common Pleas Judge Frederick Pepple to consider giving him less time.
“I ask for some leniency so maybe I can come home and have some kind of life left,” Furry said.
Pepple sentenced Furry to the same term as he gave codefendants James Dinsmore, 29, and Aaron Dietrich Sr., 27. All three pleaded guilty to aggravated murder, aggravated burglary and intimidation of a witness. They were offered a plea deal to avoid the death penalty.
Kluge told the judge his client was the one who came in to talk to authorities about the killing and help them solve the case.
“That statement helped them tremendously,” Kluge said.
Kluge asked Pepple for a chance for parole after 20 or 25 years, rather than 30, for helping authorities with the case.
