CRIME

'The worst mistake I ever made' - Inside the investigation of the death of Jason Bartley

Michaela Sumner
Chillicothe Gazette

Editor's note: The names of two witnesses, both under 18 at the time of this incident, were not used in this story. 

Jason Bartley smiles while helping with the Adena Women's Board's annual flower sale for a class community service project during his sophomore year at Pickaway-Ross Career and Technology Center.

CHILLICOTHE - The last time Keisha Rhea saw her son, he wore a smile on his face.

On that chilly October night in 2017, Jason “Boog” Bartley and his friends were supposed to go to a Halloween trail, then hang out on East Second Street.

For a long time, Rhea said her son wasn’t allowed to spend time at his friend’s mom’s East Second Street house until about a year before he died. It became an exhausting daily battle.

“And I eventually gave in and let him go over there,” Rhea said. “I feel like that was the worst mistake I ever made.”

It was a year ago last month when Jason's body was found on the east side of Chillicothe, about two months before his 18th birthday.

Tucked between a garage and a fence in the backyard of an alley behind a home in the 300 block of East Second Street, Bartley's body was discovered by his school’s homeless coordinator the morning of Oct. 18.

Police wait for the coroner shortly after the body of a male was found the morning of Oct. 18 in the backyard of a 300 block of East Second Street home.

At 11:09 a.m., she made the call to 911, telling them a man was laying down near the alley. She said he was unresponsive and she couldn’t tell if he was breathing.

Describing his clothes to the dispatcher, the woman said he was wearing all black and his pants were down slightly, as if someone had dragged him or his pants had started falling down.

Within an hour of discovery, the body was positively identified as 17-year-old Jason Bartley.

At the scene, a detective noticed “a freshly disturbed area on the grass and dirt” near a gate that led to the backyard of 365 E. Second St., where Chris Detty lived. Another noted dirt and debris on the clothes Bartley was wearing, and that his right rear pants pocket was torn and underwear was askew.

To view a timeline of the last hours of Jason Bartley's life click on the interactive graphic below or click here.

Found laying facedown, Mike Ratliff, an investigator with the Ross County Coroner’s Office, noted superficial wounds on Bartley's back, left side and inside of his left elbow. Bartley also had blood on his upper lip, and mucus or saliva coming from his nose.

Taken into evidence were a small, purple and orange plastic container holding a green, leafy substance and a red lighter, which were in Bartley’s clothes.

The discovery prompted a criminal investigation, charges for Detty and Sandy France, and changed a family’s life forever.

In the days following the boy’s death, an investigation into what happened that night unfolded.

Chillicothe police detectives interviewed dozens of people. They obtained several search warrants for residences, cellphones, and security camera footage.

Through a series of interviews with the teens Bartley was with the night he died, detectives learned they had gone to the basement where Detty lived and were drinking. One of the teens was Detty’s nephew.

Security camera footage from 376 E. Second St., where Sandy France lived showed Jason, his friend and their girlfriends arriving there around 6:44 p.m., however, police indicated the camera’s timestamp was about an hour slow.

About 10 minutes later, Sandy France, the mother of one of Bartley's friends, left in a blue car parked in front of their home and returned with what appeared to be a bagged bottle. About a half-hour later, Jason is seen carrying a similar bagged bottle. He and France’s son placed the object into a backpack at the end of the home’s sidewalk.

Security footage obtained by Chillicothe police detectives from Houch’s Liquor Store appears to show France enter the store at 8 p.m. and select a bottle of New Amsterdam vodka, which she paid for with a $20 bill.

“I noticed in the video, she had the money for the vodka already in her hand and when she decided to get a bottle (of) beer she has to retrieve money from her back pocket,” Detective Jeffrey DeMint wrote in an Oct. 19 incident report entry. “It appeared to me that she was using someone else’s money for the vodka and used her own money for the beer.”

In separate interviews, Jason’s friend and girlfriend told detectives they’d all gone into an abandoned home next to Detty’s before going to his basement. Detty was making food in the kitchen, unaware the teens had gone downstairs, a boy told police.

About five weeks prior, the same boy told them Detty allowed them into his home, so they could drink in his basement.

Videos from the social media platform Snapchat collected by police show the three teens in the basement that night.

In all interviews with the three teens, detectives were told Jason walked his girlfriend to her Olive Street home between 9 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. due to her curfew. When Bartley returned, they said, the trio began drinking.

Five days after his body was found, his friend reportedly told detectives they’d drank a couple of shots that night before starting on a bottle of 80 proof New Amsterdam red berry-flavored vodka. It wasn’t the first time they’d drank a bottle, he alleged.

He described Jason as “smashed” and indicated the teen had passed out within one hour of drinking.

In early interviews with Jason’s friend’s girlfriend, she’d told detectives Jason had fallen down the stairs and passed out around 3 a.m. Later, she thought it may have happened around 11 p.m. Both times, she claimed Detty had picked Bartley up and placed him into his bed.

After a night of drinking, Jason’s friend and that friend's girlfriend awoke the following morning, chugged the remainder of the vodka and headed to a nearby gas station.

In an Oct. 18 interview, the friend told detectives Jason was still laying on Detty’s bed when they left. Both teens claimed Detty was the last person known to be with Jason the morning his body was found.

“He stated when he left Boog (Bartley's nickname) was still on the bed and Chris was also still on the bed, he stated he asked him if he wanted a cigarette,” the incident report said. “(The detective) asked (the boy) who he asked if they wanted a cigarette and he stated Boog. I asked him what did he say, (the boy) stated he didn’t say anything so he thought he was still drunk passed out.”

Not hearing a response from Bartley, the teens left the house. France’s security camera recorded the pair by the house at 10:46 a.m. and then Detty at 11:08 a.m. When the teens returned to the area about five minutes later, police were “everywhere.” Both Jason's friend and his friend's girlfriend were in hiding due to unrelated warrants, and the girl is who Chillicothe City Schools’ homeless coordinator was looking for when she found Jason’s body.

On Oct. 26, the homeless coordinator told detectives she and another woman saw a man by the gate of Detty’s yard. She described the man as a scruffy-looking, white, short male, who was wearing a red sweatshirt and red pants – the same clothes Detty was wearing.

When detectives executed a search warrant at the Detty house on Oct. 18, detectives found two syringes, a glass pipe with residue, and a scale under and between couch cushions in the basement. Detectives took the comforter on Detty’s bed as evidence, noting a stain near the headboard which “appeared to be too large to be from drooling during sleep.” Two Bootlegger liquor bottles were also found in a trash can near the back of the Detty property that day.

Security camera footage from across the street captured Detty walking south one minute before the 911 call to police. Viewing the footage, a detective noted Detty was wearing the same clothing as described by the Chillicothe City Schools’ homeless coordinator and a second woman.

In January 2018 – 77 days after his body was discovered – the autopsy and toxicology results were returned from the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office.

Montgomery County’s Coroner Lee D. Lehman listed Jason’s cause of death as acute alcohol intoxication.

Ross County Coroner Dr. John Gabis expanded the cause of death to include benzodiazepines – commonly known as Xanax – abuse as a contributing factor, due to the presence of anti-anxiety medication in the teen’s system. The toxicology report also noted the presence of THC, a compound found in marijuana, in Jason’s urine, but it wasn’t noted as a factor in his death.

It’s unclear where the Xanax came from and conflicting stories emerged as to where the teens obtained the drug. Investigators found no evidence to show Jason was prescribed Xanax.

While Jason’s girlfriend reportedly told detectives Jason and his friend told her they bought the pills from Sandy France, the friend’s girlfriend claimed France wouldn’t sell the pills to her son, but she would’ve sold them to Jason.

The day Jason’s body was found, his friend told detectives he didn’t remember if Jason did pills the night before because the friend was drunk. Later, he said, he knew Xanax was in his own system, but he didn’t remember taking them, so he must have done it when he was drunk. He still didn’t remember Jason taking the pills either.

Another teen told detectives Jason and his friend may have gotten the Xanax from France or from a house on East Fourth Street.

Although a search warrant at France’s house turned up a small marijuana grow operation, drug paraphernalia, and clear plastic containers identical to the one found on Jason’s body, detectives didn’t find any Xanax.

Sandy France was charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, both third-degree felonies punishable by a maximum of 10 years in prison.

Over the course of the investigation, France was adamant she didn’t remember buying the vodka, that she was drunk most of the night and only remembered buying herself a beer. In an Oct. 18 interview with France, she reportedly told detectives that homeless people would buy her son and Jason alcohol.

Sandy France and her public defender listen to the 24-month recommendation given by the Ross County Prosecutor's Office regarding her connection to the death of Jason Bartley Monday afternoon.

“Detective asked her if they were drinking at her house yesterday and she said no but (she) would give them water,” an incident report said. “Detective asked her if she had ever given them alcohol and she said (no) and said that her dad was a ‘full blown’ alcoholic.”

At the end of July, she pleaded guilty to both charges and was sentenced to serve two and a half years in prison.

Chris Detty was charged with three misdemeanors: obstructing official business, failure to report knowledge of a death, and abuse of a corpse.

According to the incident report, Detty met with a detective in the city park the day after Jason’s body was discovered. Detty reportedly told the officer he’d allowed his nephew to stay in his basement for a few days, but on the third night, he came home around 11 to 11:30 p.m. to find his nephew, his nephew’s girlfriend, and Jason in his residence without permission.

He allegedly told the officer the young couple sitting on the couch, and Jason sitting on Detty's bed. He described them as “extremely drunk and being loud,” claiming he’d told them to leave, which they did. He told police he took the nearly empty bottle of alcohol they were drinking, dumped it out, and threw it in the trash behind the home.

Christopher Detty, second from right, addresses Jason Bartley’s family and conveys how sorry he is in the role he played that lead to Jason Bartley’s death in October of last year.

Police recovered an empty bottle of New Amsterdam red berry flavored vodka from the trash where Detty said they’d find it.

One of Detty’s housemates allegedly told police Detty was aware the body found was a teen an hour before it was released.

At the beginning of November, Detty allegedly admitted he did see Jason laying in the alley that morning, but didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to get involved. Asked how Jason got from his basement to the alley, Detty reportedly told the detective he didn’t know.

In mid-July, Detty’s case was set to go to trial. Just after jury selection was completed, he pleaded no contest to obstructing official business and failure to report knowledge of a death and was found guilty in Chillicothe Municipal Court. A third misdemeanor, abuse of a corpse, was dismissed as a part of a plea deal.

He was sentenced to serve 120 days in jail – the maximum sentence allowed for the two charges.

The sentences for France and Detty were little consolation for Bartley’s family.

More than 50 people rallied in front of the Ross County Courthouse in June, calling for stronger charges in Chris Detty’s case. Through the duration of the cases, they donned T-shirts with photos of Jason Bartley and painted #JusticeforJason on their vehicles.

After going through the investigation with lead detective Jeffrey DeMint, Keisha said she felt there were things that happened that didn’t come to light. In other instances, she felt those who were interviewed didn’t tell the truth.

Kemberly Moore leads a chant during a rally for Jason "Boog" Bartley on the steps of the Ross County Courthouse Monday. Bartley was only 17 when he died from a mixture of alcohol and Xanax and his body was dumped in an alley on Oct. 18, 2017.

“I think (the cases) went pretty crappy…because yeah, Sandy bought the alcohol. She’s doing a couple of years for buying the alcohol, but I think (Detty) did the worst by throwing his body in the alley like it was trash and he gets 120 days and really don’t even get convicted of it because they have no solid evidence,” Keisha said. “Certain things in my eyes would be solid evidence, but I guess in their eyes it’s circumstantial. I hate our judicial system.”

Chillicothe Municipal Court records indicate Detty has a minor criminal history dating back to 2006. In June 2017, Detty pleaded guilty to a felony receiving stolen property charge and was sentenced to three years of probation.

While the family sought more severe charges, both Ross County Prosecutor Matt Schmidt and Chillicothe Law Director Sherri Rutherford said there was no direct evidence to tie Detty to the crime.

“In the Detty case, no one saw Detty move the body, so there was no direct evidence Detty committed the crimes charged,” Rutherford wrote in a statement to the Gazette. “While many cases with entirely circumstantial evidence are successfully prosecuted, it’s hard to predict how a jury will receive that evidence.”

Schmidt expressed similar thoughts, arguing the evidence against Detty regarding the abuse of a corpse charge was entirely circumstantial, making it insufficient to prove the commission of a felony.

On the anniversary of Jason’s death, his family gathered at his grave in Greenlawn Cemetery for a candlelight vigil.

They remembered their first-born child, the boy who loved to play with his cousins, the one who taught his little brother to ride a bicycle. They remembered his smile and his laugh.

“He was always ornery,” Keisha said during an interview with the Gazette. “He would always smile. He would always…he was just Boog.”

Before Jason died, the family of four took camping trips. Time for the boys to go fishing was always a requirement for the trips. During the winter, Keisha said they went to indoor waterparks.

“We try to go different places. We like to go down by Kentucky and go down to the Ohio River,” Keisha said, adding they often liked to camp in the McArthur area.

“The only reason why my brother liked that spot is because he knew every time we went, he could fish,” Jason’s little brother, Dan, said with a grin.

At their Olive Street home, Jason and Dan shared a bedroom filled with trophies from years playing football, baseball, and basketball. They were nearly five years apart, but shared a love of rap music and often played basketball together in their yard.

Jason was about three-years-old when his dad bought their current home. With a bittersweet smile, Keisha remembered how Jason had thought the nearby park was theirs too.

“When we first bought the house, Boog thought his dad bought the house, and he bought the park with the house ‘cause Harry Strawser’s right behind the house, and he’d tell everybody that ‘my dad bought that house and he bought the park too,’ so Boog always thought that park was his,” Keisha said.

She proudly remembered how Jason was riding a bike without training wheels by the time he was three, so it seemed only fitting he’d be the one to teach Dan.

Like many parents, Keisha said her oldest was spoiled and got pretty much anything he wanted. It was difficult to tell him, no, but he was still a good kid.

“He did little mischievous things here and there, but what teenager doesn’t? All teenagers do stuff,” Keisha said. “He was good most of the time.”

“And by most of the time, she means five percent of the time,” Dan chimed in with a mischievous grin of his own.

To Keisha, their banter was nothing more than brotherly love. Dan agreed, Boog was a good brother.

Jason’s death has made Keisha more protective of her youngest.

“We look at things a lot different now,” Keisha said, explaining her youngest had wanted to stay at a friend’s house. He wasn’t allowed because she didn’t know the parents. “I kind of wish I would’ve been a little bit like that before, but…you just have to learn from your mistakes I guess.”

Keisha is torn on how to remember her final moments with him.

“We were actually laughing, just about a couple of things that was being said. I go back and look; sometimes I think that the last conversation with Boog, maybe if I would’ve not let him go hang out with his friends, we might’ve been arguing,” she said, her voice choking up. “And when we did let him go, we were laughing when he left. The last time I seen him, he had a smile on his face.”