Tipp City woman sentenced in Kentucky for role in grandfather’s death

A Tipp City woman was convicted in Kentucky and sentenced Wednesday to an additional one year in prison on charges in the 2015 death of her 88-year-old grandfather, whose body was dumped in a Boone County, Kentucky, creek following his murder at his Tipp City home.

Hope O. Earnshaw York, 27, was convicted along with boyfriend Richard Terrel, 39, in Miami County on charges stemming from the beating death of William York Sr. Terrel was sentenced to 15 years in the death while York was sentenced to three years on charges of attempting to help cover up the murder.

They were arrested June 3, 2015, in the death of William York Sr., who was reported missing by family members in late May 2015. Earnshaw York and Terrel lived with him in the weeks before his disappearance.

William York Sr.’s body was found June 3, 2015, in a Kentucky creek.

Terrel was convicted in Miami County of voluntary manslaughter, tampering with evidence, gross abuse of a corpse, felonious assault, and receiving stolen property. Earnshaw York pleaded no contest and was found guilty in Miami County of gross abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and receiving stolen property.

She was released to a halfway house in Ohio earlier this year and picked up shortly after by Boone County officials. She was booked into the Boone County Jail in May facing charges of tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse.

Earnshaw York pleaded guilty in late November to felony tampering with evidence and misdemeanor abuse of a corpse as prosecutors prepared to go to trial, said Linda Tally Smith, Boone County Commonwealth’s attorney.

The charges carried between one and five years in prison. Earnshaw York was sentenced to one year on felony tampering with evidence and one year for misdemeanor abuse of a corpse. The sentences will be served concurrently but consecutive to the Ohio sentence.

Tally Smith said the term of one year to run consecutive to Earnshaw York’s Ohio sentence was recommended. “I refused to recommend (a) concurrent (sentence),” she said.

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