MILLERSBURG — Two brothers serving a 14-month prison sentence were free men, for the most part, after Holmes County Common Pleas Judge Robert Rinfret granted both judicial release Wednesday. In December, Dennis Carl Bevington, 55, and Gary Lee Bevington, 62, both of 833 Depot St., pleaded guilty in Holmes County Common Pleas Court to failure to provide for a functionally impaired person. In exchange for their pleas, the more serious charges of involuntary manslaughter were dismissed. They could have faced 11 years in prison. The charges stem from the Oct. 13, 2014, death of their 84-year-old mother, Delores Bevington. Dennis Bevington was represented by Mark Baserman Sr., and Gary Bevington was represented by Jeff Kellogg. About a month after …show more content…
(An autopsy done by the Stark County Coroner’s Office concluded her death was a homicide by virtue of neglect.) He spoke of how the brothers admitted knowing their mother was unable to take proper care of herself in the weeks immediately preceding her death. Delores Bevington lost the ability to get up and move and clean herself, and was confined to a couch, onto which the urine and feces from her decomposing adult diaper had spilled. The diaper also was filled with maggots and bugs and her thighs and buttocks were covered with open sores and one patch of blackened and rotting flesh, noting the evidence was so overwhelming it contradicts the claim they were unaware of the seriousness of her condition. As for why Knowling opposed Gary Bevington’s release and not Dennis Bevington’s, during sentencing he said he believed Dennis was truly remorseful, but was too weak to act. Gary, on the other hand, blamed everyone but himself. At the sentencing, Kellogg and Baserman Sr. said the men were helpless in caring for their mother because they thought they were bearing out her wishes, illustrated by a long history of refusing treatment and medication. At the hearing, Rinfret did not ask for any arguments from counsel, and he did not ask for any statements from the