October 05, 2026

Jury Selection Begins Today in Rodney Hinton Jr. Aggravated-Murder Trial

By The Night Desk

Headline card by The Night Desk; booking photo via Cincinnati Enquirer; Deputy Henderson photo via River News

Jury selection begins today in one of the most gut-wrenching cases to hit an Ohio courtroom in years.

Rodney Hinton Jr., 40, is charged with aggravated murder in the May 2, 2025 death of Hamilton County Deputy Larry Henderson — a retired deputy who was directing traffic for a University of Cincinnati graduation ceremony on Martin Luther King Drive near the Burnet Woods entrance when prosecutors say Hinton drove into him.

The facts of the crash are largely not in dispute. What the jury will have to decide is what was going on inside Hinton's head.

A day of unbearable loss

Just hours before the crash, Hinton and his family met with Cincinnati police and were shown body-worn camera video of the death of his 18-year-old son, Ryan Hinton, who had been shot by an officer the day before — May 1, 2025.

Ryan had been in a stolen car with three other young men in East Price Hill when police confronted them. The group fled on foot; police say Ryan pointed a gun at officers, and an officer fired. Ryan died shortly after. The shooting was later ruled legally justified.

Deputy Henderson had no connection to that incident — he worked for a different agency and was assigned to an unrelated traffic detail.

The insanity defense

Hinton's attorneys are pursuing a not guilty by reason of insanity defense. Defense attorney Clyde Bennett has said his client suffered a mental break after watching the video.

"From day one I told the public, the media, and the court that my client didn't have mental wherewithal to understand the wrongfulness of his conduct," Bennett said at a previous hearing.

Hinton has been diagnosed with both schizoaffective disorder and bipolar disorder with psychotic features, and was hospitalized for his mental health two years before the killing. Under Ohio law, a diagnosis alone isn't enough for an insanity verdict — and prosecutors argue Hinton deliberately killed Henderson. At a court hearing last year, prosecutors said Hinton drove "into the first police officer he saw."

A court-appointed psychologist testified at a pretrial hearing that Hinton's ability to make a rational decision at the time was likely impaired by his mental illness — but that poor judgment under extreme emotional distress is different from being in a psychotic state.

What's next

• Jury selection starts today and is expected to take about three days.
• Opening statements are expected Thursday, after which the prosecution plans to take the jury by bus to the scene of Henderson's death.
• Testimony and arguments are expected to take about two weeks; the full trial is expected to last three weeks.

Prosecutors initially sought the death penalty, but in January the judge ruled that Hinton's serious mental illness makes him ineligible for execution under state law. He now faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.

Hinton pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich says she is seeking the maximum sentence allowed by law: "Taking someone out because you're mad about something else is not appropriate."

Source: WKRC / Cincinnati Enquirer — read the original report