URBANA — The Urbana Police Division reports that nine years after the violent beating and death of an 87-year-old Urbana man, a Springfield man was indicted Monday by a Champaign County grand jury on charges that include aggravated murder, three counts of murder and aggravated robbery.
Josiah Wayne Mathews, 29, was taken into custody Tuesday by Urbana police for the charges that relate to the homicide involving victim Louis Taylor.
Officers began an investigation at 10:11 a.m. Oct. 25, 2011, into the violent beating of Taylor that occurred inside the elderly man’s residence on Dorothy Moore Avenue in Urbana.
That morning, Taylor was transported to the Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, where officers report he underwent several days of emergency care and treatment, but never regained consciousness. He died as a result of his injuries Nov. 17, 2011, making the case a homicide, officers said.
The Urbana Division of Police worked closely with Special Prosecutors from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office at the direction of the Champaign County Prosecutor’s Office to present the criminal case to the grand jury.
“While this case is nine years old, it has always remained on our minds and in our work efforts, and we have never lost sight of our duty to Mr. Taylor and his family to find justice for his killing,” Urbana Police Chief Matt Lingrell said Tuesday.
“Monday’s criminal indictments and today’s arrest of Josiah Mathews moves us into the judicial portion of trying to answer that calling.”
Other charges handed up by the grand jury against Mathews include: first-degree felony count of robbery, second-degree felony count of felonious assault, third-degree felony count of tampering with evidence and fourth-degree felony count of grand theft of a motor vehicle.
Mathews was taken into custody at the Clark County Jail, where he was being held on unrelated charges. He was transported to the Tri-County Regional Jail, where he will be held pending his appearance in the Champaign County Common Pleas Court.