Peters gets life in prison without parole

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Convicted murderer Christopher Peters received the maximum sentence on all three counts during a hearing held Monday morning in Van Wert County Common Pleas Court in connection with the death of 15-month-old Hayden Ivan Ridinger.

Peters, 27, who was living with the child and the boy’s mother, Valerie Dean, at the Old Lincoln Inn in Delphos in November 2015 when the child was found dead, was sentenced by Judge Martin D. Burchfield to consecutive sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole on one count of aggravated murder, an undesignated felony, and eight years each on counts of felonious assault and endangering children, both felonies of the second degree, in the death of 15-month-old Hayden Ridinger.

Judge Burchfield also gave Peters credit for 304 days already served while awaiting trial and his subsequent sentencing.

William Kluge, one of two attorneys who represented Peters, said his client will “challenge the evidence” in the case on appeal, and noted his opinion there was some confusion as to who actually murdered Hayden: Peters or the boy’s mother.

Kluge also asserted that Peters had not had any serious offenses on his record prior to his conviction in this case.

“He has had some minor issues in the past, but nothing like this,” the attorney told the judge.

County Prosecutor Eva Yarger also made a statement prior to sentencing, challenging Kluge’s claim that Peters had not been convicted of anything other than minor misdemeanors. Yarger noted that Peters had several domestic violence convictions as a juvenile, including felony domestic violence, and one conviction as a juvenile for cruelty to animals. He also was convicted of misdemeanor drug counts as an adult.

“He was a violent juvenile and he is a violent adult,” Yarger said in asking for the maximum penalty of life without parole on the murder charge. She also noted she feels Peters is “extremely likely to reoffend.”

Yarger spoke about the cruelty of the boy’s death, showing a photo of Hayden smiling as a baby and then a photo of the young child lying dead in his crib.

“(Peters) beat him and beat him and beat him until he died,” Yarger said of the boy’s murder.

The prosecutor became emotional at times as she talked about the “fear and confusion” the young boy must have felt during the beating.

“Not knowing why someone who was supposed to take care of him was hurting him,” she said, adding that there was “no provocation, let alone a strong provocation,” to mitigate the crime.

Prior to sentencing, Joyce Ridinger, grandmother of the young victim and mother of Dean, read a victim’s impact statement, noting that Peters “had no right to put everyone through such pain” by killing her grandson.

“You have destroyed many lives,” Ridinger added. “You have taken a baby from his mother … he was her heart and soul.”

The boy’s grandmother also said in the statement that Dean, who is scheduled to stand trial December 18 on charges of involuntary manslaughter and child endangering related to her son’s death, is “living in her own hell” because of the boy’s murder and will do so “until the day she joins him in heaven.”

Peters, who had let his beard grow after shaving it off for his trial, had no reaction during sentencing. He also declined to speak when asked by Judge Burchfield.

Following Peters’ sentencing, Yarger said she felt the judge made the right decision. “If anybody deserves life in prison without parole it’s him,” the prosecutor said.