Grandfather ruled incompetent for trial

A Vinton County judge has accepted a mental health evaluation that found 73-year-old Gary Siders Sr. incompetent to stand trial on 16 counts of child endangerment. The ruling came after law enforcement rescued 16 children, ranging in age from 18 months to 18 years, from a squalid home in Hamden, Ohio, on June 30. Investigators described the scene as deplorable, with the children reportedly confined to a small room in conditions likened to those worse than livestock, amidst human feces. Some of the children were described as feral, unable to speak, and none were enrolled in school. During a court hearing on Wednesday, Vinton County Prosecutor William Archer raised no objections to the evaluation's findings. Siders Sr. appeared in court in a wheelchair. His attorney, Dorian Baum, stated that his client's mental health had been declining for years and was not restorable, adding that Siders Sr. does not fully understand or appreciate what is happening. In addition to Siders Sr., his wife Christina Siders, son Gary Siders Jr., and daughter-in-law Elizabeth Siders, who is the mother of the children, have also been charged in the case.