“When Chad got out, he was supposed to contact Joe’s brother to find out where this guy (Ott) lived at and get the information from him.” – Inmate Witness
This story has been updated to explain how Geauga County Sheriff’s Office detectives came into possession of the April 12, 2006, letter from the witness to Chad South.
When Joseph Rosebrook was sent to the London Correctional Institution in 2005 for the attempted murder-for-hire of Curtis Frazier, a new name allegedly made it to the top of his hit list: Daniel C. Ott — a man in his late 60s at the time who turned state’s evidence against his former business associate, sending him to prison for 10 years.
Rosebrook reportedly made it known he wanted a “snitch” killed and was introduced to another inmate at London Correctional Institution who could help. He allegedly asked the man about “killing somebody.”
“I told him if it was in the penitentiary it could be done because I was never going home,” a key prosecution witness told jurors on Day 4 of Rosebrook’s trial for the mistaken-identity murder of Daniel E. Ott, 31, of Burton Township in 2006. “He told me it wasn’t in the penitentiary.”
Prosecutors asked the witness remain nameless out of fear for his safety. In fact, he only agreed to testify in the trial — which is being held in Geauga County Common Pleas Court Judge David Fuhry’s courtroom — on condition the state of Ohio move him to an out-of-state prison to serve out the remaining years on an 18-years-to-life sentence for a 1993 murder conviction.
“I’ve got a reputation in the penitentiary and me doing this right here, I already know what’s going to happen when Joe goes to prison,” the man said. “He’s going to send word from prison to prison to prison to prison and then it’s going to be all bad for me.”
After several conversations about the murder plot, the man said he introduced Rosebrook to Chad South and another inmate. The man said he first met South in prison in 1987 and later reunited with him at London Correctional.
South and the other inmate were going home soon and they wanted to get on their feet, the man explained, adding they were looking for money because they had nothing.
South was convicted in May of murdering Daniel E. Ott in Burton and sentenced to 28 years to life in prison.
The witness said he was present during conversations Rosebrook had with the men, when Rosebrook would “talk about the man that snitched on him, that he’d like him to be killed.”
Rosebrook told them they were supposed to get paid in cash by his brother, who the witness said was a town official.
Carl Jeffrey “Jeff” Rosebrook, Joe’s younger brother, is a Perry Township trustee. Prosecutors claim Jeff was the alleged moneyman in the murder-for-hire scheme. His case is set for trial Oct. 11.
South and the other inmate were to be paid $10,000 each, in cash, up front and $10,000 after the job was done, the man said.
“When Chad got out, he was supposed to contact Joe’s brother to find out where this guy (Ott) lived at and get the information from him,” the man explained.
Before South was released from prison, the witness said he and South discussed the murder plot and the best way to murder someone.
“I’ve done so much time in the penitentiary . . . we all share stories about how to do it, how to get away with things and stuff like that, and we just basically talked to Chad about it,” the man said.
The witness said he told South the best way was with a crossbow because it was silent and could be shot from a distance. Instead, South shot Daniel E. Ott with a shotgun at close range.
They also discussed how to communicate with each other once South was released.
“Chad gave me his telephone number. I can call him or write him letters at his wife’s house,” the man said, adding they would use code words to discuss the murder plot.
The witness said he wrote South on April 12, 2006, to inform him the other inmate was about to be released and was going to go see South about the “blue pick-up truck.”
“Before Chad went home, that’s what we talked about, when (the other inmate) was coming home that he was coming to talk to him (South) about doing that for Joe,” the man said.
In the letter, the witness asks South if he needs help “loading up that pick-up truck” because the other inmate could use some extra money.
“I’ve been talking to him about Joe’s problem. Give him a call when he gets out after the 13th (of April),” the man said in the letter.
That letter resurfaced in 2010 or 2011 when South’s wife gave Geauga County Sheriff’s Office detectives a banker’s box full of his belongings. Inside the box was the April 12, 2006, letter from the inmate to South, a letter detective Juanita Vetter said South was worried about them finding.
Attached to the letter was the mailing envelope with the witness’s name and prison identification number listed as the sender. This led detectives to find the witness and interview him, Vetter said.
The other inmate eventually backed out before the hit was to be carried out, the man added.
The witness said he eventually learned South had carried out the murder.
“Chad wrote me a letter,” the man said. “Chad sent me some pictures of him going to Memphis, Tenn., and to Kentucky, and told me everything went fine.”
He took that to mean South had committed the murder and had been paid.
Rosebrook’s lawyer, Henry Hilow, called South a thief and a murderer.
“And one of the ways he’s a murderer is because you helped him,” Hilow told the man. “You set that up.”
Hilow asked the man whether he had reached an agreement with prosecutors to receive immunity from a murder charge. The man said he did not.
“In fact, from what you’re describing right here, this whole situation could only take place with your help that you gave Chad South,” Hilow said.
Earlier Thursday, Rosebrook’s former sister-in-law, Pamela Rosebrook, agreed to take the stand after pleading the Fifth a day earlier, despite a grant of immunity from prosecution. She was found in contempt of court, but afforded an opportunity to consult with court-appointed legal counsel.
On Thursday, she withdrew her Fifth Amendment claim and answered questions about her ex-husband Jeff Rosebrook’s responsibility for Joe’s finances while he was in prison.
Pam testified that Jeff had some of Joe’s money and kept it in envelopes.
One witness who was not called to the stand was Daniel C. Ott, who prosecutors had transferred from a federal prison in Kentucky to testify at trial. They decided, however, not to call the ailing 80-year-old Ott.
Prosecutors rested their case Thursday.
Fuhry dismissed the jury and ordered jurors not to return to his courtroom until Sept. 19, indicated the lawyers would be working on jury instructions Friday and he did not want jurors to begin deliberations on a Friday afternoon.
On Friday, Fuhry also denied a defense motion to acquit Rosebrook on all charges.
Hilow said he might call a witness Monday morning. Closing arguments will be given after the defense rests its case.
