Location

London Correctional Institution

Offenses

Aggravated Murder, Aggravated Robbery

Sentence Min/Max

LIFE/LIFE

Date Admitted

03/22/1976

Next Eligibility Hearing Date

03/30/2024

James Thomas Curtis

A14463400

In May of 1975, Suzanne Candler had her whole life in front of her. Suzanne was 18 years old and moved to Cincinnati after graduating from high school in her hometown of Lima, Ohio. An only child, Suzanne’s parents were anxious about her moving so far away, but proud their little girl was going to get her business degree from Southern Ohio College. Suzanne dreamed of getting her degree and then becoming a stewardess. On the morning of her murder, Suzanne woke up extra early so that she could drive the three and a half hours to Lima to spend Mother’s Day with her mom. She had hoped to arrive early enough to go to church with her mother that morning. She wouldn’t make it.

James Thomas Curtis was also awake in the early morning hours that day. Around 3:30a, a Sharonville police officer observed Curtis pull in and out of several closed businesses in what appeared to be a police cruiser. The vehicle had a red light on its roof, two red lights in the rear window and a radar clock on the dashboard. When Curtis was observed “checking out” a gas station, the officer approached and asked him what he was doing. Curtis claimed he worked for a security company and was checking on the station for a client. The police officer was unconvinced, but also unable to do anything about it. At the time, impersonating an officer was not a stand-alone crime, and required the impersonation to be during the commission of another offense. The officer documented the interaction and sent Curtis off with a warning.

At 4:30a, Gayle Chitwood was nearing the end of a long drive, when she came in contact with Curtis. Gayle was driving down I-75 from Detroit, heading to Covington, Kentucky, when what appeared to be a police cruiser pulled up behind her and began flashing its lights at her. When the “cruiser” turned on a flashing red light, she pulled over. Curtis approached, showed her a badge, indicated he was a police officer and demanded her driver’s license. He then told her she had been speeding and asked that she accompany him to his cruiser. When Gayle opened the car door, the interior light came on, revealing her male traveling companion asleep in the back. Seeing the man, Curtis gave her license back and told her to slow it down. Curtis then left in search of an easier target.

Many of the details of what happened next are not known, but police believe Curtis used a similar ploy to pull Suzanne over as she drove north on I-75. Her car was discovered on the side of the highway, not far from where a 14 year old boy found her body. Condition of her body and clothing indicated that Curtis shot her in the back with a .38 revolver. The bullet entered through her back, struck her aorta, and exited through her left breast. This was the fatal shot, but Suzanne did not die right away. As she lay on the ground, she put up a hand to try to stop the second shot, but it passed through her hand, entered through her nose and her left cheek, passed along her skull and exited behind her left ear. Condition of her clothing and the presence of a large amount of semen indicate Curtis raped her as she lay dying. Once he was finished raping her, he took her purse, her watch and her class ring, and fled the scene. These items would all be recovered from Curtis’ house and the murder weapon would be found in his car.

Curtis was convicted of Aggravated Murder and sentenced to death. Two years later, the Ohio Supreme Court overturned the death penalty, ruling the procedure for examining mitigating evidence was unconstitutional. As a result, Curtis’ death sentence was commuted to Life with the possibility of parole after 15 years. The legislature would subsequently amend the sentencing statute to provide for a sentence of Life without the possibility of parole. While that sentence was not available, for his heinous crime Curtis deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison. He has already received more clemency than he deserved and more than he gave Suzanne Candler. The Hamilton County Prosecutors Office strongly opposes early release for James Thomas Curtis.