Sierah Catherine Joughin (February 11, 1996 – July 22, 2016) was an American woman who was abducted and murdered in Delta, Ohio. She disappeared on July 19, 2016, and was found dead three days later. Her assailant, James Dean Worley, was convicted and sentenced to death for her murder and over 20 years in prison for kidnapping, assault, and other related charges.
Worley had been previously convicted and imprisoned for the assault and attempted kidnapping of another woman in 1990 under similar circumstances but was released after three years and was not listed in any state or federal offender database at the time of Joughin's murder. Consequently, the killing prompted the creation of Ohio Senate Bill 231 ("Sierah's Law"), a statute that provides for a searchable database of felons living in the state, who are convicted of specific violent offenses. The statute was signed into law in December 2018.
Sierah Joughin Sierah Catherine Joughin was born in Sylvania, Ohio, on February 11, 1996, to Sheila Vaculik and Tom Joughin and lived in Metamora, Ohio. Nicknamed "Ce" by friends and family, she graduated from Evergreen High School in 2014. At the time of her death, she was enrolled at University of Toledo's Junior College of Business, studying human resource management and interning at her uncle's metal stamping business.
James Worley
James Dean Worley (born April 8, 1959) was born in Tacoma, Washington, to Florence and James Julius Worley. His father was a United States Army officer, and due to his alcoholism and abuse of his wife, divorced his wife when Worley was five years old. After his mother remarried, the family moved back to the Midwest, and Worley graduated from Evergreen High School in Metamora, Ohio, in 1978. He worked various jobs in Toledo, Ohio, as a farmer in Delta, and as a grounds crew member for several county fairs. Regarding his education, Worley attributed his 1.59 GPA to being a frequent user and seller of marijuana from the age of 14.
In July 1990, Worley ambushed a young woman, Robin Gardner, while she was riding her bike in Whitehouse, Ohio. He struck her with his truck, got out of the vehicle, struck her on the head, and placed her in handcuffs. He then held a screwdriver to her throat and stated, "I'll kill you if you don't stop screaming," and attempted to force her into the vehicle. Gardner was able to escape and was picked up by a passing motorist. Worley was ultimately arrested and convicted on abduction charges and sentenced to 4 – 10 years in prison, with the possibility of parole. He served three years in prison for the crime before he was released early by his own petition.
Worley returned to prison in 2000 when he was convicted of cultivating marijuana plants and possessing weapons while on disability, both felonies at that time. He was released two years later, in 2002, again after petitioning for early release. After his second release from prison, he started a small business at his residence and was licensed as a trailer transporter.
Murder, investigation and arrest
At approximately 6:45 p.m. on July 19, 2016, Joughin was riding her bicycle home from her boyfriend's (Joshua Kolasinski) house while he rode alongside her on his motorcycle. They parted ways near County Road 6 near Metamora, Ohio, in Fulton County, as he turned around to return home, while she continued. When she did not arrive home that evening, and her boyfriend told her family that he couldn't reach her by cell phone, they contacted authorities. Later that evening, Joughin's bicycle was discovered several rows into a cornfield near where she was last seen, and the county sheriff noted signs of a struggle, along with motorcycle tracks through the corn. With the assistance of the FBI, authorities made efforts to track Joughin using her Fitbit activity tracker and smartphone, the latter of which returned a signal several miles from where her bicycle was located, but this did not produce any new leads. Rewards ranging from $25,000 to $100,000 were offered for any information leading to her safe recovery.
Several items that did not belong to Joughin were discovered near her bicycle, including a pair of men's sunglasses, which tested positive for male DNA, a screwdriver, and a box of automotive fuses. A passing driver also recovered a motorcycle helmet with a bloody hand print on its surface. Joughin's boyfriend was not considered a person of interest, as his helmet could quickly be accounted for. When officers were canvassing the neighborhood after Joughin's disappearance, Worley, who lived under 2 miles away, told them his motorcycle had broken down in the area and that he had lost items of the same description as those at the crime scene. He also stated that he had discovered two bicycles in the corn, one of which he took and that it would have his fingerprints on it. He commented that he "didn't steal anything or kill anyone." Another witness in the area described seeing a passenger van driving at a high speed through the area, and provided a license plate number to the authorities. The license plate was soon discovered to be registered to Worley, who had been convicted and sentenced in 1990 for assaulting and attempting to kidnap another woman, who he knocked off her bicycle. Based on this information, investigators obtained a search warrant for Worley's property.
Upon searching a barn on Worley's property, authorities discovered a green chest, where they found several pairs of women's underwear (on one of which blood was found), restraints, and a carpet-lined freezer stained with blood. They also found blood on Worley's motorcycle, as well as "zip-tie" restraints and a ski mask in his truck. Joughin's DNA was found on a piece of duct tape and on an inflatable mattress both found in the barn. Investigators found recording devices all over the property and concluded from cell phone records that Worley was at the scene of the abduction for nearly two hours during the time Joughin was missing. They also discovered that Worley had told a court-mandated therapist, after his previous conviction that he "learned from each abduction he had done and the next one he was going to bury." He was arrested on charges of abduction on July 22, three days after Joughin's disappearance. A spokesperson for the sheriff's office suggested that Worley fit the profile of a serial offender and that he could potentially have additional unknown victims, possibly kept at the property. Despite an exhaustive search, neither Joughin nor any human remains were found there.
On the same day Worley was arrested, at around 6:00 p.m., Joughin's remains were discovered in a shallow grave in a field along County Road 7 in Delta, Ohio, a few miles southwest of Worley's property. Her body was found intact, hogtied (wrists handcuffed and bound to the ankles behind the back), had a large plastic toy in her mouth functioning as a gag, and wearing an adult diaper. An autopsy determined the cause of death as asphyxiation, caused by the gag. There was no evidence of sexual assault. The precise time of death was not determined, but the official time of death was 9:00 p.m. on July 22, 2016, when she was declared dead by medical professionals.
Legal proceedings
Indictment and arraignment On August 16, 2016, Worley was indicted on nineteen counts and was jailed without bail. The charges included aggravated murder, kidnapping, felonious assault, abduction, tampering with evidence, and abuse of a corpse. At his arraignment he entered a plea of not guilty on all charges. Prosecutors sought capital punishment for the aggravated murder charge. After two delays in September 2017 and January 2018, and hundreds of potential jurors called, trial testimony began in March 2018 at the Fulton County Common Pleas Court in Wauseon, Ohio, with Judge Jeffrey Robinson presiding over the case.
Allegations and defense summary The prosecution alleged that Worley had watched pornography up until the crime was committed, as evidenced by his web browsing history. He ambushed Joughin after encountering her on County Road 6, struck her in the head with his motorcycle helmet (possibly knocking her unconscious and leaving DNA evidence on the helmet), and waited in the cornfield until it was dark. During this time, he called his brother to tell him his motorcycle had broken down, but prosecutors alleged he was next to Joughin in the cornfield when he placed the call. He then rode his motorcycle back home (less than five miles away), drove his van back to the crime scene (during which a witness noticed speeding), and transported her back to the barn at his residence. There he left some of her blood-stained clothes and physically assaulted, hog-tied, and gagged her with a plastic toy. At some point, she asphyxiated from the gag, which prosecutors alleged Worley intended, as it was inserted with enough force to break a tooth. Worley then transported her body to the cornfield close to his property, which he buried approximately two feet deep.
Worley denied having ever encountered or assaulted Joughin. His defense argued that the evidence obtained from the barn, including the underwear, handcuffs, and BDSM-related items, were part of a pornography studio that Worley had intended to start. Worley claimed that he had left behind the helmet and other evidence found near Joughin's bicycle before the disappearance took place when his motorcycle had broken down on the side of the road. They alleged that because of the low concentration of Worley's DNA on the helmet, it might have been someone else who used it to assault Joughin. A witness saw a man crouched in a field wearing red shorts, but no red shorts were recovered at Worley's property, and his defense argued it, therefore, could not have been Worley in the cornfield.
Witnesses
During the trial, the prosecution presented several witnesses, among them:
Megan Roberts, BCI Special Agent, testified about physical evidence recovered at the alleged kidnapping site, Worley's residence, and the location where Joughin's body was found, much of which contained both Worley's and Joughin's DNA David Morford, Toledo Police Detective, testified about digital evidence, such as cell phone records showing Worley in the vicinity of the crime scene for over two hours, and evidence on his home computer, including pornography searches for terms such as "hogtyed teen", "rape", "stranded" and "helpless" Robin Gardner, previous victim of Worley, testified that in July 1990, Worley ran her down with his truck, held a screwdriver to her neck, and threatened to kill her if she didn't come with him; a crime for which he was sentenced to 4–10 years in prison, but served just three before being released.
Worley's defense team presented several witnesses; two of them were longtime friends of his. The first acknowledged under cross-examination that the helmet found on County Road 6 on the night of Joughin's abduction was the same one he had bought for Worley several years prior. The second witness testified under cross-examination that he and Worley smoked marijuana and watched pornography together. At one time, Worley mentioned he wished to start a pornography studio in his barn, where at the time, he was drying marijuana plants. He also stated that Worley was having electrical problems with his motorcycle, but "it never left him stranded".
Verdict and sentencing Closing arguments for the trial concluded on March 26, 2018, and jury deliberations began the same day. Worley was found guilty on March 28, 2018, of seventeen of the original nineteen charges, including aggravated murder, after jurors deliberated for less than six hours.