Ohio Grandfather Found Incompetent to Stand Trial in Child Endangerment Case
An Ohio judge found Gary Siders Sr. mentally incompetent to stand trial on child endangerment charges involving 16 grandchildren.
A 73-year-old Ohio man charged with endangering his 16 grandchildren has been declared mentally incompetent to stand trial. The ruling came Wednesday in Vinton County, where a judge accepted a psychiatric evaluation report for Gary Siders Sr. The county prosecutor did not contest the finding.
Siders appeared in court in a wheelchair. His attorney, Dorian Baum, said his client's mental health has been deteriorating for years and is unlikely to improve. "He doesn't fully understand or appreciate what's going on," Baum said, adding that the competency ruling was not unexpected.
The charges stem from a June 30 rescue of the children from a home in Hamden, a rural community about 80 miles south of Columbus. Authorities described the living conditions as deplorable, with the children largely confined to a small room. They were not enrolled in school, and neighbors said they had never seen the children.
When found, the children ranged in age from 18 months to 18 years. Some were described as "feral" and unable to speak, with varying medical conditions. The eldest child was born in May 2008, two months after Siders' son, Gary Jr., then 18, married Elizabeth, then 15, in West Virginia with her parents' consent. Court records indicate Elizabeth has been pregnant most years since.
Siders' wife, Christina, his son Gary Jr., and daughter-in-law Elizabeth—the children's mother—have all pleaded not guilty to related charges.