BY TANYA BRICKING
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It's been eight years since 23-year-old Rochelle Hardy was stabbed to death in Mount Auburn. Now, justice may finally be served.
Richard "Ricky" Jones Jr., 40, was returned to Cincinnati on Tuesday after being arrested eight months ago on unrelated charges in Riverside, Calif.
He appeared in Hamilton County Municipal Court on Wednesday on a warrant for a 1990 felonious assault charge involving another woman at Ms. Hardy's Copelen Avenue address.
Mona Mills was struck in the back of the head with a glass and told police Mr. Jones poured boiling water on her left arm.
He is to be arraigned todayon the murder charge in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. A grand jury indicted him on the charge in 1990, saying he stabbed Ms. Hardy to death during an argument after she hit him with a hammer.
But Mr. Jones fled. The original officer on the case retired, and for years, police didn't know where Mr. Jones was. He appeared several times as a "Tristate's Most Wanted" suspect, but not many tips about him came in to the Crime Stoppers hot line.
Authorities in California discovered the murder warrant for the former Walnut Hills man after he was arrested there in March. After facing charges there, he was sent back to Ohio and booked in the county jail on Tuesday.
He is being held in lieu of a cash bond of $350,000. A grand jury is to hear the felonious assault case by Nov. 27.
