Post by admin4laney on Aug 9, 2005 9:16:01 GMT -5
Drive in works to keep Hamilton woman’s killer in prison
By Mary Lolli
Butler County Bureau
HAMILTON — The family and friends Tina Elaine Mott, whose boyfriend killed and skinned her in their Hamilton apartment in 1996, have launched a petition drive to stop his potential early release from prison.
“Tina was a beautiful, free-spirited young lady who did things in good faith,” said Jennifer Pilon, a close friend from Mott’s hometown of Buffalo, N.Y.
Pilon and others from Mott’s hometown are hoping the Ohio Parole Board hears their pleas to keep Timothy Allen Bradford in prison when he comes up for a parole hearing next week.
According to Pilon, Mott had a difficult childhood and relied on her close friends to serve as her support system when her family was unable to be there for her.
“She was my sister,” Pilon said. “I don’t like using past tense. Tina’s still alive in my heart.”
According to authorities, Mott, 21, and Bradford, then 24, had been arguing in the Laurel Avenue apartment the night Mott disappeared on June 4, 1996.
Two months later, two boys fishing in Hamilton’s Linden Lake discovered a skull missing its lower jaw.
DNA tests comparing material from the skull with that of Mott and Bradford’s 2-year-old son helped authorities positively identify the skull as Mott’s.
After his arrest Bradford disclosed the gruesome details of Mott’s death.
According to Hamilton police, after killing Mott Bradford tried to break apart her body and make it unidentifiable. He skinned her down to the bones, dismembered her, sawed her bones into smaller pieces and extracted her teeth with needle-nosed pliers, authorities said.
More than a year later Bradford was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, gross abuse of a corpse, as well as lesser charges of misuse of credit cards and theft related the use of Mott’s money after her death.
He is serving a 10- to 25-year sentence at the Grafton Correctional Institution.
According to the Ohio Parole Authority, Bradford is scheduled for a hearing, which may occur Wednesday or Thursday.
In a July letter to the state’s parole board, Pilon urged the board to keep Bradford in prison and expressed her belief that Bradford got off easy with a charge of voluntary manslaughter rather than murder.
“Tina’s youth was one full of hardships,” Pilon wrote. “She had no real family, none competent or mentally strong anyway. So when Bradford comes up for parole very soon, he’ll probably think that nobody cares enough to raise their voice and protest. If that’s the case, then he couldn’t be more wrong — Tina was, and still is, loved by many.
“She touched the lives of so many people in her short existence, and so much could have been learned from her,” the letter stated. “Tina had a heart of gold and a love for life (despite her trials). She was just the softest, sweetest, kindest individual I knew, and have ever had the pleasure of knowing...
“... Not a day has passed that I haven’t thought of her, or her departure which sickens me, even after all these years. Her friends, here in Buffalo, were her family... I am her family, her sister, and many others feel the same. And I want to make her proud.”
Pilon’s letter also addresses the fact that Mott’s son, Corey, is growing up without his mother.
“Tina was only twenty-one years old, and her son will forever grow up without his mother. Not only did Timothy Allen Bradford rob Tina’s bank accounts, but he robbed the world as well as her friends and family of a very generous, compassionate person, he robbed Tina of motherhood (a job she always wanted to fulfill) and life, and he robbed his son Corey of the mother/son bond, of ever knowing the kind of person his mother was, and of ever having a normal life,” the letter stated. “How could somebody do that to the mother of their own child? Has Bradford even thought about how all of this has affected Corey, or how it will affect him in the future?”
The on-line petition, sponsored by another friend of Mott’s, can be found at:
www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/347146416
Contact Mary Lolli at (513) 820-2192, or e-mail her at mlolli@coxohio.com.
www.journal-news.com/news/content/news/stories/2005/08/05/HJN0805PAROLE_s.html
By Mary Lolli
Butler County Bureau
HAMILTON — The family and friends Tina Elaine Mott, whose boyfriend killed and skinned her in their Hamilton apartment in 1996, have launched a petition drive to stop his potential early release from prison.
“Tina was a beautiful, free-spirited young lady who did things in good faith,” said Jennifer Pilon, a close friend from Mott’s hometown of Buffalo, N.Y.
Pilon and others from Mott’s hometown are hoping the Ohio Parole Board hears their pleas to keep Timothy Allen Bradford in prison when he comes up for a parole hearing next week.
According to Pilon, Mott had a difficult childhood and relied on her close friends to serve as her support system when her family was unable to be there for her.
“She was my sister,” Pilon said. “I don’t like using past tense. Tina’s still alive in my heart.”
According to authorities, Mott, 21, and Bradford, then 24, had been arguing in the Laurel Avenue apartment the night Mott disappeared on June 4, 1996.
Two months later, two boys fishing in Hamilton’s Linden Lake discovered a skull missing its lower jaw.
DNA tests comparing material from the skull with that of Mott and Bradford’s 2-year-old son helped authorities positively identify the skull as Mott’s.
After his arrest Bradford disclosed the gruesome details of Mott’s death.
According to Hamilton police, after killing Mott Bradford tried to break apart her body and make it unidentifiable. He skinned her down to the bones, dismembered her, sawed her bones into smaller pieces and extracted her teeth with needle-nosed pliers, authorities said.
More than a year later Bradford was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, gross abuse of a corpse, as well as lesser charges of misuse of credit cards and theft related the use of Mott’s money after her death.
He is serving a 10- to 25-year sentence at the Grafton Correctional Institution.
According to the Ohio Parole Authority, Bradford is scheduled for a hearing, which may occur Wednesday or Thursday.
In a July letter to the state’s parole board, Pilon urged the board to keep Bradford in prison and expressed her belief that Bradford got off easy with a charge of voluntary manslaughter rather than murder.
“Tina’s youth was one full of hardships,” Pilon wrote. “She had no real family, none competent or mentally strong anyway. So when Bradford comes up for parole very soon, he’ll probably think that nobody cares enough to raise their voice and protest. If that’s the case, then he couldn’t be more wrong — Tina was, and still is, loved by many.
“She touched the lives of so many people in her short existence, and so much could have been learned from her,” the letter stated. “Tina had a heart of gold and a love for life (despite her trials). She was just the softest, sweetest, kindest individual I knew, and have ever had the pleasure of knowing...
“... Not a day has passed that I haven’t thought of her, or her departure which sickens me, even after all these years. Her friends, here in Buffalo, were her family... I am her family, her sister, and many others feel the same. And I want to make her proud.”
Pilon’s letter also addresses the fact that Mott’s son, Corey, is growing up without his mother.
“Tina was only twenty-one years old, and her son will forever grow up without his mother. Not only did Timothy Allen Bradford rob Tina’s bank accounts, but he robbed the world as well as her friends and family of a very generous, compassionate person, he robbed Tina of motherhood (a job she always wanted to fulfill) and life, and he robbed his son Corey of the mother/son bond, of ever knowing the kind of person his mother was, and of ever having a normal life,” the letter stated. “How could somebody do that to the mother of their own child? Has Bradford even thought about how all of this has affected Corey, or how it will affect him in the future?”
The on-line petition, sponsored by another friend of Mott’s, can be found at:
www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/347146416
Contact Mary Lolli at (513) 820-2192, or e-mail her at mlolli@coxohio.com.
www.journal-news.com/news/content/news/stories/2005/08/05/HJN0805PAROLE_s.html
