Attorneys for Rodney Hinton Jr. are asking a Hamilton County judge to throw out his murder conviction and order a new trial, arguing in a motion filed Wednesday, Nov. 4, that jurors improperly considered statements Hinton made to psychologists when they decided his guilt. Hinton was convicted last month in the May 2025 killing of Hamilton County sheriff’s Deputy Larry Henderson.
The motion, filed in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court and posted on the clerk of courts’ website Nov. 4, was reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer. In it, defense attorneys Clyde Bennett II and James Bogen argue that Hinton’s constitutional right against self-incrimination and his right to a fair trial were violated because of the alleged juror misconduct, according to the Enquirer’s reporting on the filing.
At the center of the motion is a narrow instruction Judge Jody Luebbers gave the jury. Hinton pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and psychologists who evaluated him testified about statements he made during those evaluations. Jurors were instructed to consider those statements only in deciding the insanity defense — not as evidence of guilt or innocence on the criminal charges themselves. The written instructions provided to the jury said Hinton’s statements during evaluations related to his mental condition “must not be considered as part of the evidence of guilt or innocence for the criminal charge,” according to the motion as reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer.
The statements at issue were powerful ones. During the trial, a psychologist testified that Hinton told her he had to turn the steering wheel of his car “a little bit to hit” the deputy, and prosecutors highlighted that testimony in closing arguments, the Enquirer reported. Hinton also told the psychologist that he saw the deputy, “drove the car in his direction” and struck him, according to the Enquirer’s account of the trial testimony.
“The jury’s consideration of information it was expressly instructed not to consider constitutes serious juror misconduct and undermines the fundamental fairness and integrity of the proceedings,” Bennett said, in a statement quoted by the Cincinnati Enquirer. “Mr. Hinton was entitled to a trial in which his constitutional rights were respected and the jury followed the court’s instructions. Because that did not occur, the resulting verdict cannot stand without meaningful judicial review.”
The motion rests in part on what the defense says happened after the verdict. In an affidavit attached to the motion, Bennett said that he, Bogen and prosecutors met with the jury after the verdict was announced, and that during that discussion one juror told him “in front of all who were present” that the jury had considered Hinton’s statements to psychologists when determining his guilt, according to the Enquirer. Bennett said the other members of the jury heard what the juror said and did not dispute it. Hinton’s attorneys have asked Luebbers to schedule a hearing in court on the issue.
The filing is the latest turn in a case that has drawn intense attention in Cincinnati since May 2025. Prosecutors said Hinton intentionally drove into Henderson hours after he watched video of his son being fatally shot by a Cincinnati police officer the previous day, according to the Enquirer. Henderson, a retired sheriff’s deputy working a traffic detail, was killed on May 2, 2025. Hinton was indicted days later and pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, putting his mental state — rather than whether his car struck the deputy — at the center of the trial.
A Hamilton County jury delivered its verdict on Oct. 23, after deliberations that stretched over more than two days. Jurors found Hinton guilty of murder, two counts of reckless homicide and two counts of felonious assault, according to the Enquirer. The jury acquitted him of the most serious charges he faced — two counts of aggravated murder, which is punishable by up to life in prison without parole — and rejected his insanity defense.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What is confirmed is the filing itself: a motion for a new trial, filed Nov. 4 in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court by attorneys Bennett and Bogen, asking Judge Luebbers for a hearing. What is not yet known is how prosecutors will respond to the juror-misconduct allegation, whether Luebbers will hold the requested hearing, and how she will rule. The allegation in the motion is the defense’s claim, supported by Bennett’s affidavit about a post-verdict conversation; no court finding of misconduct has been made. Hinton has not yet been sentenced, and he faces life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years on the murder conviction if the verdict stands.
What happens next runs on two tracks. Luebbers must decide whether to hear and rule on the new-trial motion, a step that could come before or alongside sentencing. Sentencing in the case has been scheduled for Nov. 16, and the defense had already signaled after the verdict that it intended to challenge the outcome. If the motion is denied, an appeal after sentencing remains the expected next step; if it is granted, the murder, reckless homicide and felonious assault verdicts could be set aside and the case tried again. For now, the conviction stands, and the next public development will be the court’s response to Wednesday’s filing.