Officials: Victim was beaten because she previously testified against a drug dealer


ZANESVILLE - Years before she was beaten and tied up with a gun held against her head, she became addicted to drugs.

In order to understand one, you have to understand the other, said Assistant Muskingum County Prosecutor Ron Welch during opening statements Monday in a trial for two men allegedly involved in beating a woman last year because she previously testified against another drug dealer. 

Michael S. Thundercloud, 45, and Bryan K. Ross, 31, both of Zanesville, previously pleaded not guilty in Muskingum County Common Pleas Court to two counts of kidnapping, both first-degree felonies, aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony, felonious assault, a second-degree felony, and retaliation, a third-degree felony.

Every charge also carries a firearm specification for each man.

The victim in this case started dating a man when she was a teenager who wanted her to be a "party girl," Welch said. So she started smoking marijuana. She used Vicodin, Percocet and oxycodone. By 18 years old, she was snorting the pills to get high faster.

She became pregnant with her boyfriend's baby and quit using drugs until the day after her child was born, Welch said. By the time her daughter was 2 years old, she was using heroin.

You have to understand how addicts think in order to understand what happened to the victim, Welch told the jury. 

"Getting high is the number one priority of an addict," he said.

She lied to her parents, he said, and her grandparents so they would give her money to spend on drugs. When lying didn't work, she stole from them. She spent time in jail. She would get probation for drug charges, and then violate her probation to get high. 

In 2014, she was called to testify against a drug dealer, Welch said. She went to court, and then she forgot about it. But he didn't forget.

Her husband overdosed and died, she got clean, got custody of her daughter and moved to Lancaster, Welch said. There, she found out she was pregnant again and started doing meth with her new boyfriend.

"Why do people make these decisions?" Welch said. "Why can't an addict just quit?"

To an addict, he said, getting high is the best feeling in the world, no contest. It's "10 times better than food, 10 times better than sex, 10 times better than making money."

She met a drug dealer, Darnell Vann, and starting hanging out at his house, Welch said. Another woman at Vann's house recognized her and told Vann that the victim had testified against a drug dealer that Vann happened to know.

Vann called him, and the dealer offered to pay him to beat up the woman, Welch said. So Vann told the woman about the hit, and offered to split the money with her. If they don't do it, he told her, someone else will, and she could get seriously hurt.

Yeah, she said. Go for it.

But they never agreed on how, when or where, Welch said, so when the beating eventually happened, on Oct. 28, 2017, the victim was caught completely unaware. She was beaten so severely she urinated herself, her wrists and feet were bound so tightly the wire left indentations and one of the men on trial, Ross, held a gun against her head. She thought she was going to die.

For 12 hours before they beat her up, Welch said, the individuals involved were using drugs. The victim, after she finally left the home, went back for more drugs, because she was an addict, and Vann had the best heroin in town.

Welch noted that the story sounds unbelievable if you just hear it from the victim. But the alleged offenders filmed it, and Welch showed the jury photos and the video of the assault.

"It's what it looks like," he said.

Thundercloud's defense attorney, Karen Phipps, of Columbus, argued that you can't see injuries on the victim and just because she says she's a victim doesn't make her a victim.

She lies, Phipps said. She steals. And the video was designed to look real.

"We've all watched movies and thought it looked real," Phipps said.

Ross' defense attorney, Adam Grosshandler, of Zanesville, argued that the victim ultimately consented to the beating and was a willing participant.

Welch contended that in cases where the act of consent is not stated as an integral aspect of a crime — such as in rape cases — it could not be used as a legal defense. Common Pleas Judge Kelly Cottrill told Welch that he could make that argument during his closing statement and object if it was brought up during the trial.

Vann, Heather Chandler and Byron Goodrich all previously pleaded guilty to charges stemming from their involvement in the beating. Goodrich was pronounced dead after hanging himself in prison earlier this month. Vann and Chandler entered guilty pleas to various charges related to the case and are awaiting sentencing.


Twitter: @KL_Snyder

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