MANSFIELD — Nordic heavy metal music allegedly drove Cody Lutz to stab 90-year-old Omar Brown to death with a piece of a broken, wooden dowel rod, a Mansfield police detective testified on Thursday.
Detective Dave Scheurer said Lutz, 31, of 478 Parkview St., Mansfield, told him the music “spoke to him” and told him to kill before midnight on March 18 or that “Armageddon would begin and last for 1,000 years.”
The 27-year police veteran’s testimony came Thursday afternoon during a preliminary hearing in Mansfield Municipal Court. At the end of the 23-minute hearing, during which Scheurer was the only witness, Judge Jerry Ault found sufficient probable cause to bind the case over to a Richland County grand jury.
Lutz is charged with aggravated murder in the death of Brown in the victim’s residence at 1831 Middle Bellville Rd., Apt. 3, in the Morchester Villa senior citizens community.
Scheurer said Lutz had a key to the victim’s apartment and drove there with the intention of killing Brown.
It was not brought out during testimony why Lutz had a key. Brandon Pigg, chief criminal attorney in the Richland County Prosecutor’s Office, declined comment when asked about it afterward.
Lutz used his key to unlock the door, but then had to force his way in due to a half-inch, wooden dowel rod stuck between the door and the wall, according to Scheurer. When he did, the rod broke into two pieces, the smaller of which Lutz allegedly stuck into his back pocket.
Scheurer said Lutz woke up Brown and the two sat in the living room and talked for a short while. He said Lutz told him he drank some water and that Brown went back to bed.
Lutz allegedly woke Brown up again shortly and that Brown got food out of the refrigerator for Lutz and put it on the counter. Scheurer said Lutz told him that he showed Brown a photo of a woman on his phone and that the victim looked at him as if he were confused.
“(Lutz) then began to stab Omar in the neck and throat area with a piece of the broken dowel rod,” Scheurer said, adding a preliminary coroner’s investigation found about 18 stab marks on the victim.
“Cody told me the final thing he did with the dowel rod was forced it down Omar’s throat,” the detective testified.
Police were called to the apartment the next morning and spoke to neighbors and relatives of the victim. Scheurer said he was told of people who had keys to the apartment, a list that included Lutz.
Scheurer said they went to Lutz’s residence, but he was not there. Police were told Lutz worked at a warehouse in Medina County.
Scheurer said police received a call from the Medina County Sheriff’s Office, who said a man had contacted them to report a man had spoken of killing a man in Mansfield the night before. Scheurer said he asked that deputies pick up Lutz and hold him for questioning.
Scheurer said he drove to Medina and interviewed Lutz, obtaining the confession and arrested him less than four hours after Brown’s body was found.
During cross examination from defense attorney Bernard Davis, Scheurer said Lutz had no prior criminal record of any kind before the alleged murder.
Ault continued Lutz’s bond at $1 million cash and he remains in the Richland County Jail.
In an unrelated homicide, the preliminary hearing against Jordan Skoog, 28, of 6968 State Route 546, Bellville, was continued until April 4.
Skoog is charged with murder in the shooting death of Austin Smiley, 19, of New London, at 1665 Frontier Trail in Mifflin Township on March 20.
Skoog also remains in the Richland County Jail on a $1 million cash bond.
