May 17—The cellmate of a man strangled at the Warren Correctional Institution last fall told investigators, “Yes, I am (expletive) guilty,” according to documents released Friday by the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Jedidiah Hayes Lang, 42, serving 15 years to life for a murder conviction, was charged in March with two counts of murder and one count of assault and strangulation. He “intentionally caused the death of his cellmate,” according to a Warren County grand jury report.
Lang has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the Oct. 26, 2023, death of his cellmate, Cody S. Bartimus, 31, of Newark.
Bartimus was pronounced dead at Atrium Medical Center in Middletown. “His cause of death was strangulation and the cause of death is homicide,” the Warren County Coroner’s Office reported.
Warren County Common Pleas Judge Donald Oda II on Friday continued Lang’s hearing until July 22 on his competency to stand trial and his mental state at the time of the offense.
Lang told investigators he got into an argument with Bartimus — who had been his cellmate for about a week — because Bartimus was tearing up his mattress and mattress foam ended up on Lang’s belongings. He said Bartimus jumped down from the top bunk and got into Lang’s face.
“Lang said he warned Bartimus that he was out of his mind, but Bartimus continued to become aggressive,” said a report from the highway patrol, which investigated the killing. “Lang said he stood up and before he knew it, he had wrapped a towel around Bartimus’ head, ‘trying to rip his head off.'”
Lang said he blacked out and when he came to, Bartimus was on the floor and was purple. He knew Bartimus was dead because he had “done this before.” Lang then changed clothes, put what clothes he had in his laundry bag, then drank a cup of Kool-Aid and about 20 minutes later alerted a corrections officer who was completing rounds. He did not touch the towel wrapped around Bartimus’ neck, the report said.
When asked to consent to photos and provide DNA, Lang reportedly told the trooper, “Yes, I’m (expletive) guilty.”
Long said he has no mental health diagnosis and is not on any medications, but said he told staff he was having problems but no one would take him seriously, the report said.
At the time of his death, Bartimus was nearing the end of a 5 1/2-year prison sentence he received in 2018 for trying to kidnap a four-year-old girl from a car in June 2017 while her mother tied her in a car. car seat outside a child care facility, the Newark Advocate reported.
Lang was sentenced to 15 years to life after pleading guilty to murder in the 2013 death of Bradley Allen Grosscup, 52, at Mount Vernon in Knox County, 40 miles northeast of Columbus.
Grosscup’s body was found in his burned-out apartment. Investigators said Grosscup let Lang and his girlfriend move in with him because they were homeless. An autopsy revealed that Grosscup had been strangled, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
Lang is incarcerated at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown.
