Kirby Rankin was sentenced Thursday, Oct. 15, to 360 days in jail for assaulting a woman at Jungle Jim's International Market in Fairfield. Rankin is one of three adults charged in the death of 7-year-old William Evans-Ellis, who was found bound in an Oakley closet in August.
A Fairfield judge imposed two consecutive 180-day sentences after Rankin pleaded guilty in July of misdemeanor assault and aggravated menacing, WKRC first reported. Rankin was also ordered to pay more than $9,000 in restitution for the victim's medical bills and lost income.
The charges stemmed from a January confrontation in the store's parking lot. According to the Fairfield police report, Rankin accused a woman of nearly hitting Rankin's family with a vehicle, then punched the woman in the face, WCPO reported.
The woman suffered bruising, three fractured teeth and a knee injury. Surveillance footage reviewed by officers showed the woman walking away before Rankin approached again and struck her with a closed fist, according to the police report. Rankin then pulled a gun and pointed it at a bystander who tried to intervene.
Judge Zachary Zoz called the assault an overreaction, according to WCPO's courtroom account.
Zoz said Rankin's pending Hamilton County murder case will determine when Rankin serves the jail time. Rankin was also ordered to pay court fines on top of the restitution.
The assault case drew scrutiny because Rankin remained free on a $100,000 bond after the January arrest. Months later, on Aug. 6, police found William dead inside a closet at a home on Madison Road in Oakley. The boy was bound with duct tape.
The Hamilton County coroner ruled William died from blunt force trauma to the head and documented numerous other injuries.
Rankin, the boy's mother Kaitlin Evans, 38, and Nessa Keaney, 23, are each charged with 13 counts. The charges include aggravated murder, murder, kidnapping, felonious assault, child endangering and conspiracy.
All three have pleaded not guilty. Each is held on $1.1 million bond.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich said after the Aug. 13 indictment that the three lived together and acted as co-parents to William. Pillich said each defendant faces life in prison without parole if convicted. Court documents allege the three used the encrypted messaging app Signal between July 1 and Aug. 6 to plan or agree to commit the crime.
A judge found Rankin and Keaney mentally competent to stand trial during separate hearings on Sept. 15 in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. Competency was not raised as an issue for Evans.
