Police: Motive unknown in teen who fatally shot her dad

HAMILTON - Authorities said Friday they remain perplexed about why a 14-year-old Hamilton girl would walk into her dad’s bedroom and fatally shoot him between the eyes apparently as he slept before she was to go to school.

Hamilton Police Sgt. Brian Robinson said multiple investigators interviewed the teen for about two hours after she called 911 just before 7 a.m. Thursday, saying she had just shot her father, James Allen Ponder, 71.

“That’s the million-dollar question: Why?” Robinson said in an interview after the teen faced a court hearing on the aggravated murder charge in Butler County Juvenile court Friday morning. “We don’t know the answer.”

But not much about the shooting seems to make sense. The teen, whom The Enquirer is not naming, has no prior criminal record. And the police had only been to the family’s home in the 1200 block of Millville Road three previous times for minor issues – and none were crimes, Robison said.

Ponder was alive when authorities got to the home. He died a short time later at University of Cincinnati Hospital Medical Center a short time later.

Robinson said the teen “went back and forth with emotion," when detectives interviewed her.

“She would be crying and then get quiet; like she was retrospective about what had happened,'' he said.

Teen: ‘Mom thinks I’m such a good girl’

The teen’s mother and at least a dozen distraught family members cried and hugged each other during a 10-minute detention hearing for the girl who just a day before repeatedly uttered “Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry," on the 911 call and told authorities to come put handcuffs on her.

Through sobs, she also can be heard saying: “My mom thinks I’m such a good girl.”

But in court, the girl - her blonde hair pulled back in a tight bun -- showed little emotion told Butler County Juvenile Court Judge Kathleen Dobrozsi Romans she understood the charges against her.

"Yes, ma'am,'' she quietly said to the judge.

Her lawyer, Matt Fritsch, said he talked with the girl and her mother Thursday, but declined to characterize the nature of those conversations.

"This case is just a little over 24 hours old. We need to let the process unfold,'' he said. "Obviously this is a tragic situation for everyone."

Two guns, a bloody pillow case and a shell casing

Authorities confiscated two handguns and two handgun magazines from the home, according to a search warrant inventory filed in Butler County Commons Pleas Court Friday.

Detectives seized a "high-power" 9 mm and a Cobra .380 semi-automatic pistol, as well as a bloody pillow, a book bag, an iPhone, four computers and one spiral notebook from the home.

It was unclear which pistol was used in the shooting, but they found a single 9 mm casing during the search.

In a separate search warrant, officers seized the teen's iPhone at the Hamilton Police Department and asked the court for permission to search it for stored data and photographs. Robinson said detectives will work to see if there is any evidence either in the notebooks or in the phone or computers they seized that may indicate a motive.

'It is clear what her intentions were'

That warrant said the teen "confessed to Detective Mark Nichols that she shot her father.”

Robinson said: “there appears to be no motivation here.” But he added that “there is nothing that was accidental here. It is clear what her intentions were.”

An amended criminal complaint charging her said: "She retrieved a firearm, loaded the firearm and shot the victim, her father, in the head in an attempt to kill him."

Her next court hearing is March 3.

Fritsch said Ohio law does not require juveniles to be automatically moved to adult court and he was hopeful the case will remain in the juvenile court system.

Robinson said can't help but feel bad for the family, especially the teen's mother who is planning her husband's funeral as her daughter sits behind bars.

“This is sad," he said. “It’s torture for the whole family even for the 14-year-old who will live with this for her whole life.”

​Editor's note: The Enquirer is refraining from naming the teen involved until more information is available.