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New Trial Sought In Girl’s Death

WHEELING-The Ohio County Prosecutor’s Office will re-try Edward Cole on a charge of child neglect resulting in the death of his 3-year-old daughter, Patience Cole, after previous proceedings ended in a mistrial.

In a memorandum to Circuit Judge James Mazzone, Assistant Prosecutor Jenna Perkins informed the court of the state’s intention to re-try Cole and asked for a trial date to be scheduled. She also asked that Cole’s trial be scheduled for a date after his wife’s trial on similar charges.

Mazzone declared a mistrial in Cole’s case April 11 after a mixup over medical records and a deadlocked jury. He learned the attorneys failed to redact certain information from medical records before providing them to jury members, who read the information which was to have been removed.

A jury of 11 men and one woman had deliberated for seven hours without reaching a verdict before the medical records issue surfaced.

Cindy Cole’s trial was to begin on Tuesday, but attorneys asked for a continuance to afford them time to get a copy of transcripts of Edward Cole’s trial. Perkins’ motion asked that Cindy Cole’s trial be scheduled as soon as the transcripts are made available and that the trial for the husband follow.

Both cases center around the March 3, 2012, death of Patience Cole after she ingested her father’s anti-depressant pills at the family home on Wheeling Island. The basis of the case is whether the child came in contact with the pills inadvertently or as a result of parental neglect.

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