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Parole hearing attracts concern

STEUBENVILLE — James Moodie has spent the last 50 years behind bars for the brutal murder and sexual abuse of his half sister’s then-3-year-old daughter, Gina Marie Higgs, at a Steubenville motel in 1974.

And if Bret Vinocur, founder of BlockParole.com, has his way, behind bars is exactly where Moodie will stay: Vinocur considers Moodie, now 73 and incarcerated in Southeastern Correctional Institution just outside of Lancaster, Ohio, pure evil. The fact that he’s scheduled to go before the parole board on Feb. 19 has Vinocur, in a word, terrified.

“That type of crime, I don’t care what anyone says, you’re not fixing him,” said Vinocur, whose Upper Arlington-based website works to stop child murderers from being released from prison. “And in the interests of justice, if you do that to a child you die in prison. I stand by that.”

Vinocur is leading the charge to keep Moodie behind bars, encouraging local residents to register their concerns with the parole board.

Moodie and his half sister, Mary Lou Higgs, were tried and convicted for the child’s murder: Moodie was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for murder and another 10 years for gross sexual imposition, to be served concurrently. Mary Lou Higgs was sentenced to the same 15 years to life in prison for murder and was released after 13 years.

According to the Herald-Star trial archives, during Moodie’s trial then-Coroner Dr. Geary Eicher had testified the toddler was covered with bruises and marks on her arms, legs and scalp; had second-degree burns to her face, eyelids and eyes; and “hundreds of superficial puncture wounds,” primarily on her chest and abdomen. Deep gouges “like fingernails clawing” were found in multiple areas, “but particularly on her external genitalia.” A chunk of her hair had been “cut or pulled out” of her head. Human hair was found in the child’s vagina and rectum, both of which were lacerated. Her hymen was torn and her vagina “dilated, lacerated and full of blood, as was the rectum.” There was no evidence of sperm in any of the child’s orifices, but Eicher was quoted in those news stories as telling jurors “something obviously penetrated (her) vagina and rectum.”

Court records state Gina’s death certificate showed she sustained “intra-abdominal hemorrhaging; traumatic rupture of the liver, spleen and duodenum; basal skull fracture; and burns of the face.” The autopsy report, more graphically, noted the toddler’s liver had ruptured and was nearly severed.

Mary Lou Higgs, who testified against her half brother, described for jurors the “three days of intermittent torture” her daughter had endured at Moodie’s hands. She also told jurors that she had been corresponding with him, even when they were both undergoing mental competency evaluations at a state hospital, and that she was “afraid of (him) but loved him.”

The two had the same mother but different fathers; Moodie, also a Jefferson County native, was given up for adoption and before his first birthday had moved with his adoptive parents to West Virginia. Weeks prior to her child’s death Higgs had reconnected with her half brother and took her daughter to the motel to stay with him.

The investigating officers had testified that, in a signed statement, dated Aug. 1, 1974, Moodie admitted to sleeping with his half sister but insisted he never molested the toddler. He also admitted hitting Gina just once with his hand and pushing Mary Lou Higgs when she said she was leaving, causing her to hit her head, police had said.

They said Moodie also told police Mary Lou Higgs had blamed the bruises covering her daughter’s body on another of her children, Gina Marie’s older half brother, and said Mary Lou had told him her son didn’t like Gina.

In 1999, Ohio’s Seventh District Court of Appeals upheld Moodie’s classification as a sex offender, pointing out the trial court had determined from the evidence submitted at the hearing that he had committed “extreme cruelty in its worst possible form” and that he had “pulled out the victim’s hair, inflicted numerous bruises, inflicted numerous puncture wounds to the victim’s chest, held the child under scalding water, beat the child with a belt and caused both anal and vaginal penetration.”

Vinocur said Gina’s story haunts him.

“There are cases where I don’t oppose parole,” he said. “Maybe the (inmate) is 85, had strong family support and did everything he was supposed to do in prison — I don’t oppose parole. But this guy, absolutely not. Nobody can read (Gina’s) story and say, ‘This is a guy I feel safe having in the community. He tortured and sexually abused a child–we’re talking worst-of-the-worst torture, over a period of time. I have a list of between 5,000 and 6,000 inmates in Ohio — there are probably a thousand of them I take no position on because I believe they can be rehabilitated. But when you murder and sexually assault a child, there’s no rehabilitating that.”

He’s hoping area residents will go to his website, blockparole.com/inmate/james-moodie/ and click on the orange link above Moodie’s picture to sign a petition urging the parole board to keep Moodie in prison.

Vinocur said in his mind, it’s a no-brainer.

“I have no confidence at all that they will keep anyone in prison if there’s no opposition,” he said. “And I don’t think there’s any family to stand up for this little girl. With no attention on Moodie, they’ll (release) him — he’s a monster and I think he’s absolutely a threat to the community.”

Efforts to determine if Moodie is represented by an attorney were unsuccessful.

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