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Police arrested Earnest Moore III on felony heroin charges in July 2014, but a small-county prosecutor dismissed the allegations and handed the case to federal authorities. Because the federal case was a long-term probe, Moore was never arrested on those accusations, allowing him to be free for several months, until he was charged with torturing a man in July.
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio - Arthur Hamlin's trip through hell began when he went looking for crack cocaine. It ended in a naked, pre-dawn dash for help.
Hamlin told police that he was terrorized for several hours July 22 and July 23 in Chillicothe in retaliation for stealing thousands of dollars in drugs from Earnest Moore III, who has been convicted of trafficking in heroin and cocaine dating back to 1995.
Hamlin said Moore and others seared him with red-hot kitchen utensils, poured boiling water on him and pummeled him, according to a police report. Moore denied the allegations.
"It was vicious and terrible and something that you hear about in a Third World country, not in Chillicothe, Ohio,'' said a resident who declined to give her name. "I'm scared, and I'm ready to move.''
The attack was just the latest drug-related incident to horrify Chillicothe, a city three hours south of Cleveland. In the past 18 months, six women have died or disappeared. Family members said they all battled addiction.
If the allegations in the 22-page police report and other documents about Moore are correct, he was, for many months at least, at the intersection of Chillicothe's drug trade. His story may shed light on the culture of the drug trafficking in rural Ohio, and the difficulties of combatting it.
That he was free and living in Chillicothe at all was somewhat remarkable. In October 2014, he faced charges that could have put him away for a decade. But the allegations were dismissed in an attempt to nab him in a larger case, records show.
Nearly a year later, he was accused of torturing Hamlin.
Prior Record
Moore, 39, has racked up drug convictions across Ohio. From 1995 to 2000 he served a stint in state prison for drug abuse and attempted abduction. From 2007 to 2011 he was back, on two cocaine trafficking convictions from Chillicothe, according to state prison records.
In 2013, he was accused of assaulting a woman on her porch in Chillicothe. The charges were dropped when police could not locate her to testify against Moore.
His illicit business appeared to take root in 2014 in Gallia County, one of Ohio's smallest and poorest, records show. Gallia is one of the state's southern-most counties and sits on the Ohio River. Its county seat, Gallipolis, is 60 miles southeast of Chillicothe. The county is part of a region that has battled the heroin plague for years.
In February 2014, a task force of local, state and federal agents sent informants to buy drugs from Moore at his apartment in Gallipolis. Court records filed by prosecutors say officers spent $2,000 there on multiple drug buys.
Six months later, agents burst through Moore's door. They found him in a bathroom, flushing heroin down a toilet, according to court records. They seized 2 ounces of heroin, a third of an ounce of crack cocaine, a small amount of marijuana, and $1,468, court records show.
A month after Moore's arrest, a Gallia County grand jury indicted him on 10 felony drug charges, including racketeering. He could have faced more than 10 years in prison if convicted.
But in October 2014, the county's prosecutor, C. Jeffrey Adkins, dismissed the charges, saying in court documents that "(Moore's) case is being taken to the federal grand jury.''
"This is not unusual; we do this a lot,'' Adkins said in an interview. "The sentences are more severe in the federal system, and they are more than what he could get here.''
Other experts note that smaller counties, strapped for cash and resources, can struggle to manage or afford complex cases, and often hand them off to federal investigators. That raises the stakes, and generally extends the investigation's timeline.
Meanwhile, the federal grand jury, in Charleston, W. Va., was to hear evidence involving Moore and alleged conspiracy to distribute heroin in Point Pleasant, a small town across the Ohio River from Gallipolis, from January 2013 through May 2014.
Federal authorities did not arrest Moore immediately after the Gallia County charges were dismissed in October 2014.
Before he could go free, local deputies brought him to court in Chillicothe. He was accused of selling a small amount of heroin to an informant a year earlier in Ross County. In November 2014, he pleaded guilty to that charge. He served four months in a state prison.
He was released in February 2015, meaning that during most of the year that the federal case was being made, Moore remained on the street. That sort of gap "is substantial, but not unusual,'' according to Peter Henning, a former federal prosecutor and a professor at Wayne State University's Law School in Detroit.
"It's certainly a public safety concern, but it does happen when you have a complex case,'' Henning said. "There is more to develop a conspiracy case than simply finding drugs in a house.''
A woman died and another went missing in Chillicothe while Moore was in prison. After he got out, the deaths and disappearances continued. It has not been suggested that Moore is a suspect. Police have looked into his connections with the women, and detectives asked to speak with him. He declined, his lawyer said. The attorney, Joseph Reed, says Moore had no involvement in any of the deaths or disappearances.
Below the radar in Chillicothe
Police reports indicate that Moore lived below police radar in Chillicothe for months, selling drugs to a steady stream of customers. The end, however, came when Hamlin told police about the attack.
According to the report police prepared after the attack, a woman who owed Moore money helped him ambush Hamlin.
That report said Hamlin, 42, had attempted to buy crack cocaine from Moore and admitted to police that he had stolen drugs from Moore. Hamlin said he "previously worked for (Moore) by running dope and guarding doors. Mr. Hamlin admitted that about one month prior to this he had stolen crack cocaine, cocaine, and heroin from Mr. Moore while working for him,'' the report said.
It said Hamlin met the woman at an apartment in the city. Soon after Hamlin entered, Moore stepped behind a door and said, "I told you I would get you, (expletive),'' according to police.
Moore quickly called someone and said: "I got him. Come and get him,'' Hamlin told officers. Two men arrived, and helped Moore take Hamlin to another apartment in Chillicothe, where a group of people was smoking crack cocaine, according to the police report.
The three men stripped Hamlin of his clothes, bound his wrists and feet with duct tape and gagged him with a sock, according to the police report. They repeatedly kicked and pummeled Hamlin, and one of them stomped on his chest, the report said.
While Hamlin was on the floor, the men poured lighter fluid on his genitals and set them on fire, according to Hamlin's account to officers. He said someone poured boiling water on him.
Hamlin told officers the men heated forks and spoons on the stove and used them to sear his skin. He also said that he had been shocked with a stun gun, according to the police report. Additionally, he said, the men attempted to sodomize him with a broom handle, the report shows.
By about 6 a.m., Moore and one of the men left, while the third man spent time in a nearby room, the report said. That allowed Hamlin to break free, he told officers.
He ran to a relative's home and hid in the back yard. His family took him to a hospital, where he gave police his statement. A police officer noted that Hamlin had serious burns on his body and four broken ribs.
Officers later obtained DNA from various items in the apartment where Hamlin said the attack took place, according to the report. Police also gathered other statements from witnesses who linked Moore to the attack.
Witnesses told police that customers went to buy drugs at the apartment while Hamiln was being attacked. One even made multiple trips to the apartment, according to the report.
Indictments
On Aug. 28, a Ross County grand jury charged Moore and three others with attacking Hamlin. Moore was accused of kidnapping and felonious assault. On Sept. 10, Ross County authorities announced a nationwide warrant for Moore's arrest.
In a statement, the investigators called Moore a "person of interest," in a general way, in the peddling of drugs and the sex trafficking of women in Chillicothe. After hearing that he was wanted, Moore met with Hamlin in Columbus and had Hamlin draft a letter that same day that gave a different version of the attack, according to police and records filed by prosecutors in Ross County Common Pleas Court.
The letter, given to court authorities, said Moore and Hamlin went to buy pills together in Chillicothe when a group attacked them. Moore got away, but Hamlin didn't, according to the police report and the prosecutor's document.
Hamlin admitted that he signed the letter, but he stressed that Moore was behind it, according to the police report. He told officers that Moore offered to "provide him (with) whatever he needed to hide out for 90 days,'' the police report said.
Moore surrendered to police hours after the warrant was issued. He is being held in lieu of a $750,000 bond at the Ross County Jail.
Two weeks after his arrest in September, a federal indictment out of West Virginia was unsealed. Moore and four others were charged with conspiracy to distribute heroin in Point Pleasant. The lack of specificity in the indictment makes it unclear whether the case from Gallia County became a part of the federal case, or what role Moore may have played.
Moore's attorney, Reed, denied the charges in the federal indictment and the allegations in the case of the Chillicothe attack.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Frail said the delay in Moore's case, between the time of the alleged conspiracy and the time of the indictment, was not unusual.
"We always try to charge someone as soon as possible,'' Frail said. "There are a lot of things that go into an investigation like this.''