Jury selection began Monday in Rodney L. Hinton’s murder trial, putting the case into the courtroom stage after months of legal buildup in Hamilton County. Judge Jody Luebbers called 107 potential jurors, and more than a dozen had already been dismissed by the time proceedings paused for the day.
The reason the case is drawing attention now is simple: Hinton is on trial over prosecutors’ claim that he intentionally used his vehicle to kill Hamilton County special deputy Larry Henderson in May 2025. He is charged with two counts of aggravated murder, one count of murder and two counts of felonious assault. Jury selection is expected to resume Tuesday, which means the first question before trial is whether prosecutors can seat 12 people who can sit through evidence tied to both deaths without losing sight of the legal standard.
Henderson had retired from the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office about five months before his death and was directing traffic near the University of Cincinnati during graduation when prosecutors say Hinton struck him. The state’s account places the killing hours after Hinton watched body camera video of his 18-year-old son, Ryan Hinton, being fatally shot by a Cincinnati officer. Police said Ryan Hinton was among a group of people in an allegedly stolen car, that two officers pursued him and another person, and that the officer fired at least four times after an officer was heard yelling, “He’s got a gun!” Authorities said the gun was recovered at the scene.
That sequence is expected to shape how jurors hear intent, because police said Hinton later returned to the station to pick up his vehicle, then drove toward the university and appeared to stop before accelerating quickly through an intersection where Henderson was standing. Police said there was no indication that he tried to stop. His attorney, Clyde Bennett II, told potential jurors they must follow the law given by Judge Luebbers and be fair and impartial even though the deputy was killed. He said that would be difficult, but said he was looking for 12 people from Hamilton County who could do that despite the weight of the case.
Theresa Larkin, meanwhile, said she watched the video of Ryan Hinton being shot from beginning to end and that “it was like my soul left my body.” She said, “I can only imagine what he felt when he saw that video,” adding that the emotional force of the footage is hard to describe to anyone who has not seen it for themselves. The court record now turns to the slow work of jury selection, with Tuesday set to continue the search for a panel that can hear the case and decide whether the state can prove the killings were intentional.
