“I think it’s important that the parole board understand the brutality of the murder,” Judy Sinks’ daughter Amy Matney said Monday after a victims’ conference she attended with her uncles at Michael’s House in Fairborn. “Our goal is for him not to be released and, it doesn’t really matter, his age at this point, or how long he’s been in there. Our goal is to simply keep him behind bars.”
Sinks was convicted in 1989 of killing his wife at home and then encasing her body in concrete on the seventh floor of the Dayton Daily News’ downtown building. Workers used sledgehammers to crack open a concrete pedestal for a water purifying unit to uncover Judy Sinks’ body.
Sinks had placed his wife’s body in a plastic barrel and had a subordinate, who did not know the contents, help him move it up elevators and stairs to the top of the building at Fourth and Ludlow streets.
A Montgomery County Common Pleas Court convicted Sinks of beating and strangling his wife, and sentenced him to 15 years to life in prison.
“Mr. Sinks should not be released at this time or at any time,” said Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office assistant attorney Leon Daidone, one of the prosecution’s trial attorneys. “His actions … before, during and after the crime warrant that he spend the rest of his life in a penitentiary.”
Sinks reported his wife missing Nov. 23, 1987. He was arrested April 26, 1988, after Dayton police, based on evidence from a newspaper maintenance worker, found the body of Judy Sinks, 44. She had been a clerical worker in the newspaper’s circulation department.
“My mother was a beautiful, gentle, soft-spoken, loving (woman),” Matney said. “She was a stay-at-home mom and she raised us well with great work ethic and just a beautiful lady.”
Matney, of Englewood, urged people to recognize the signs of domestic violence and to report it to the Artemis Center at (937) 222-SAFE.
“This particular case with my mother was classic domestic violence,” she said. “Probably the last two years of my mother’s life, I didn’t see her very often. He was very controlling and (she had) several injuries before the actual murder. Probably the control and isolation are the themes that really are red flags for domestic violence.”
Judy Sinks’ brothers — Larry, Dave, Leonard and Terry Harmon — urged anyone in support of Sinks’ continued incarceration to write to Victim Witness Division Director Sandra Hunt at 41 N. Perry St, Dayton OH 45422 or email her at hunts@mcohio.org.
Daidone said it’s important for victims’ families to stay involved after defendants are sentenced. “You have a voice. Use it,” he said. “Let the parole board know that you don’t want that defendant released.”
Matney said the victim conferences are comforting and provide an avenue to let feelings be known, even if it stirs up painful memories.
“I think it’s bittersweet,” she said. “It gives me the opportunity to talk about my mom. I don’t get the opportunity to do that very often. It’s important that he stays in there. He murdered my mother and he deserves to stay behind bars.”
Reporter Laura Bischoff contributed to this report.
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