Ross County & Chillicothe — The Ross County Grand Jury returned all 25 of their cases on Friday, March 7th, 2025, with seven open for release to the public. From testimony in the the grand jury in one of the cases, according to the Ross County Prosecutor’s Office:
On February 8th, 2025, Ross County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the Ross County Fairgrounds in reference to an alarm at the Sheriff’s Impound Lot.
A man (name unreleased) was found asleep in the driver’s seat in a vehicle at the back entrance to the fairgrounds. He changed his story on why he was there. It appeared that the passenger seat had been recently occupied.
The fence to the impound lot had been cut and a vehicle and other items were missing. Video footage showed two other men entering the lot, taking items from vehicles, and taking one vehicle.
On February 10th, detectives found the stolen vehicle, where it had been burned near the intersection of Old Route 23 and Higby Road – also near the Parry Company Quartz Sand & Gravel plant.
Then the Chillicothe Police Department was notified by a confidential informant that Michael A. Byrd and Frederick Kaleb Simon had been in a residence on Diehl Street off Renick Avenue in Chillicothe.
The resident there shared surveillance video showing the two coming there in a four-wheeler and guns identified as stolen from the Parry Company, leaving the vehicle there.
After the detective recovered the items, he watched video footage from the Parry Company showing Byrd and Simon breaking in there and taking multiple items.
For indictments on…
- 5th-degree felony breaking and entering
- two counts of 4th-degree felony grand theft of a motor vehicle
- 5th-degree felony vandalism
- 1st degree misdemeanor theft
- 3rd-degree felony breaking and entering
- two counts of 3rd-degree felony grand theft
- 3rd-degree felony having weapons while under disability
- and 5th-degree felony vandalism
…Byrd and Simon each could get up to a total of 16 1/2 years and $51,000 in fines. Both remain in custody at the Ross County Jail.
