Gmoser presents the award annually to a member of law enforcement in the county.
Newton has extensive experience in law enforcement dating back to 1992 when he began his career with the sheriff’s office. He was involved in most areas. including corrections, road patrol, SWAT, the U.S. Marshal Task Force, road patrol supervision and the fugitive unit, where he perfected his knack for finding the “bad guy,” according to the prosecutor’s office.
In 2005, Mario Lopez Cruz was found in Mexico and brought back and convicted of the rape and kidnapping of a 9-year-old girl in Hamilton. The following year, Brian Stepp was located in Cambridge, England, brought back and convicted of the rape and kidnapping of several Hamilton women.
Newton retired from the sheriff’s office in 2017, but went back to work for the prosecutor’s office. He was involved in the apprehension of Lloyd Ailes in the 2006 cold case rape of a Miami University student in Oxford and the apprehension of fugitive Jorge Raymond Gasper, who was located in Mexico and is still in prison awaiting extradition back to the United States for charges of a 2017 rape of a nine-year-old girl.
Newton was also in court this week for the arraignment of a man charged with perjury in connection with the Katelyn Markham cold-case death investigation.
Without Newton’s “stick-to-itiveness” and due diligence, these cases very well may have remained unsolved, and because of that, Gmoser said he chose Newton as this year’s recipient.
“This award highlights the importance of work that is done in cold case investigations,” Gmoser said. He noted Newton asked if he could look into the DNA testing that led to the conviction in the Ailes case.
Newton said the award is very “humbling.”
“When you look at at the plaque outside in the hallway of the previous recipients of this award, there are some really good detectives and some very good detective work that went into those cases, and I feel honored that my name is going to be among those. I truly am honored,” Newtown said.
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