A Scioto County grand jury Monday, indicted Darryl Walters, 44, whose last known address was 301 Hastings Hill Road, Sciotoville, but who is incarcerated in Adams County Jail, for the murder of Melinda Powell of Scioto County.
In the latest indictments, Walters is charged with murder, felonious assault, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse in the death of Aleisha Frazee, 19, of 802 Harvard Place, Portsmouth, sometime between Oct. 24, 2001, and Oct. 28, 2001.
Frazee's body was discovered dumped alongside Old Gallia Pike Road in Franklin Furnace.
The same charges - murder, felonious assault, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse - also were filed in the case of Tamara Lynn Smith, of 1830 Ohio Furnace Road, Franklin Furnace, whose body was found in the city of Portsmouth.
That indictment says Walters killed Smith between July 2, 2004, and October 2004.
At a joint news conference in February, Scioto County Sheriff Marty V. Donini and Portsmouth Police Chief Charles Horner told the news media Walters had confessed to all three murders.
"All of this resulted basically from a call from BCI&I (Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation), who notified the Scioto County Sheriff's Office, along with the Adams County Sheriff's office, that they had some evidence that matched two unsolved murders; one in Scioto County and one in Adams County," Donini said. "And the DNA matched up with Darryl Walters, who was, at the time, incarcerated in a prison in (Westville) Indiana. And he was incarcerated there on a felony DUI charge."
He said he recieved a call on Feb. 8, and Walters was scheduled to be released from prison in Indiana on Feb. 12. He said law enforcement had to respond quickly to question Walters before he was released.
Donini said during the Indiana interview, Walters confessed to killing Powell, but denied murdering Frazee and Smith. But on Feb. 14, while he was incarcerated in Adams County on the Powell murder charge, he had authorities contact Donini to tell him he wanted to talk with him.
Donini said it was during that interview he confessed to killing Frazee and Smith, which then brought Portsmouth detectives to Adams County.
A spokeswoman in the office of Scioto County prosecutor Mark Kuhn said no date has been set for another court appearance for Walters, who first must be tried for the Powell murder in Adams County.
Assistant Adams County prosecutor, and Scioto County attorney Rebecca L. Bennett, said while both the person who was killed and the person charged are from Scioto County, the body was found in Adams County, so the original jurisdiction for the charge is Adams County.
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