Granddaughter pleads not guilty to reckless homicide, involuntary manslaughter
NEW PHILADELPHIA – A Dover woman has pleaded not guilty to reckless homicide and involuntary manslaughter in the death of her grandfather.
Louann Sears, 27, is in the Tuscarawas County Jail with bond set at $25,000.
According to police reports from August 2025, the 85-year-old victim told police Sears pushed him, and he fell on a box in the basement of a home in the 200 block of South James Street.
Sears said the two had gotten into a verbal argument and her grandfather fell on his own.
Police got a statement from the victim at the hospital, but he died later that day. Police said he had multiple injuries from the fall, including a broken shoulder and a head injury.
The report says police later found drug paraphernalia and possible methamphetamine in Sears’s room.
A grand jury indicted Sears in May on felony counts of involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide and drug possession, plus a misdemeanor domestic violence charge. She has already served jail time for resisting arrest on the day of the incident after pleading no contest in New Philadelphia Municipal Court.
Judge Michael Ernest has scheduled a telephone pretrial for July 13 on the latest charges.