Andrus trial scheduled for May

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

For the second time in three days, a pre-trial hearing to schedule trial dates for a Van Wert man accused of murder was delayed, due to a medical family  emergency of defense counsel. The pre-trial hearing was originally scheduled for Monday but was postponed until Wednesday. It was postponed again, but Van Wert County Common Pleas Court Judge Martin D. Burchfield made the decision to establish when the trial will be held.

Larry Andrus Jr., 49, is scheduled to stand trial May 12-16 on charges of murder, voluntary manslaughter, two counts of involuntary manslaughter and strangulation. A final pre-trial hearing will held held on April 16.

The charges are connected to the September 30, 2023, death of Andrus’s stepfather, Roy D. Watts, 59, at his home on S. Vine St.

According to a Van Wert Police Department report, Andrus and Watts were involved in a verbal argument, followed by a physical altercation. Andrus was interviewed by Van Wert Police shortly after the incident, along with at least one other witness to the altercation.

He was indicted by a grand jury on November 2, 2023 but fled the area. He was then arrested six days later by U.S. Marshals in Bay County, Florida. According to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office, he was traveling on a Greyhound bus from Pennsylvania and was scheduled to arrive at a Bay County tattoo shop for an interview. Once the bus was identified, members of the Florida Caribbean Regional Task Force, Panama City Division, pulled it over and arrested him without incident.

Andrus was booked into the Bay County Jail and waived extradition back to Ohio. He was transported back to Van Wert County November 29. During his arraignment that same day, he entered a not guilty plea and bond was set at $500,000.

Defense attorney Barry Schroeder filed notice last January that Andrus intends to claim self-defense at the trial.

The murder charge is an unclassified felony. The voluntary manslaughter charge and two involuntary manslaughter charges are all first-degree felonies, and the strangulation charge and felonious assault charges are second-degree felonies. Andrus was originally scheduled to stand trial August 12-14 of last year, but it was postponed after a handful of late motions were filed by Schroeder.