Life spared for Warren native Rachael Anderson’s killer
Jury recommends Anthony Pardon get life in prison without parole
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COLUMBUS -- A jury recommended Thursday that Anthony Pardon be sentenced to life in prison without parole in the January 2018 murder of 24-year-old Warren native Rachael Anderson.
The jury of eight women and four men arrived at the verdict after deliberating for about 3 1/2 hours over two days. Their recommendation had to be unanimous.
Anderson's mother wept Thursday in a Franklin County courtroom after a jury spared the life of her daughter's killer.
Trish Anderson still was crying as she left the courtroom after meeting privately with county Prosecutor Ron O'Brien and Common Pleas Judge Stephen L. McIntosh, and declined to comment about the verdict
The victim's father, Bill Anderson, also declined to comment, although both will have an opportunity to address the judge in court before he sentences Pardon, 55, on March 16.
Because the jury recommended life in prison, the judge is barred from imposing a death sentence.
The same jury found Pardon guilty last week on charges of aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, kidnapping and rape.
Anderson was found dead by Columbus police Jan. 29, 2018, inside a closet of her apartment on Allegheny Avenue after friends and co-workers at Shaw-Davis Funeral Homes called police to report she didn't come to work, and they could not reach her by phone. She was tortured before she was killed, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors cited DNA evidence on appliance cords used to tie the victim and on her bound-and-gagged body, which authorities said was found in a bedroom closet of her apartment. An autopsy concluded she had been strangled and stabbed in the back of the neck.
Anderson was a 2012 graduate of Warren G, Harding High School, where she was in the National Honor Society, enjoyed playing soccer and volleyball, and was in the band. While still in high school, she worked at Macali's Giant Eagle in Niles.
She studied at Youngstown State University before transferring to the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science, where she earned her Bachelor of Mortuary Science degree in 2016.
"Rachael will always be remembered and loved by her family and friends for her uniqueness, hard work, loving kindness, joy and infectious laughter. She had the ability to make a lasting impression on everyone she came in contact with and she could light up a room with her smile," her obituary states.
She is buried in Pineview Memorial Park, Warren.
Pardon previously spent 24 years in prison after a 1982 conviction for aggravated robbery, attempted murder, aggravated assault and rape, according to court records. The current charges against Pardon include repeat violent offender specifications on all charges and a sexually violent predator specification on the one count of rape.