MANSFIELD - Herman Jared Preston is being held in the Richland County Jail after being charged Monday with the murder of his wife in their Madison Township home.
According to the Richland County Sheriff’s Major Crimes Unit press release, the charge stems from an alleged altercation between Preston and his wife, Amanda Preston, 36, at their residence at 383 Apple Lane Sunday morning. Amanda was found unresponsive in her garage after her husband called 911 asking for a rescue squad at 9:35 a.m. Sunday. The county coroner pronounced her dead at 10:16 a.m.
Her husband told a 911 dispatcher she had been drinking the previous night, became angry with him and cut him on the arm with a knife. He said he locked her in the garage.
Richland County Prosecutor Bambi Couch said Monday that Amanda Preston was strangled and confirmed that a 16-year-old juvenile was present in the house.
Preston, 39, who goes by Jared, was arraigned Monday in Mansfield Municipal Court, with a $500,000 cash bond set, a personal recognizance bond set, plus electronic monitoring and no contact with Amanda's family if he posts bond.
Amanda Nutter and Jared Preston were married in December 2014. She bought the Apple Lane home in September, 2013, according to county real estate records.
Apple Lane neighbors said Monday they saw Mrs. Preston cutting the grass outside her Apple Lane home, but they did not know her well.
Amanda Preston worked as a dispatcher for the Lexington Police Department in the early 2000s. She was a 1998 graduate of Ontario High School. Her Facebook profile listed her current occupation as a front-desk receptionist. She was commissioned as a notary in 2010, according to county court documents.
Jared Preston worked as a comedian and an actor, according to his Facebook profile. He had headlined comedy shows at clubs in Columbus and Mansfield. He recently had been cast in an independent film in Columbus, Mark A. Cummings Sr., the executive producer of the movie, "Holy Hustle," told the News Journal Monday.
In 2000, Jared Preston was convicted of aiding and abetting in aggravated robbery with a firearm specification, a first-degree felony. He was sentenced to six years in prison.
Preston, then 23 and living on Brookfield Drive, was one of four men charged in connection with a robbery at Key Bank, 688 Lexington-Springmill Road, Ontario, where a woman was held at gunpoint and her money stolen. Ontario Mayor Randy Hutchinson, then working as a police officer in the village, was among those investigating the robbery. “She was making a night deposit at the bank, and they approached her,” he said Monday. The suspects fled and “went quite a ways on I-71,” he said. Preston turned himself in.
Preston had been involved in an apparent accidental shooting just months before, on Dec. 29, according to News Journal files.
Preston applied for judicial release in 2003, while serving time at MANCI, and was released and placed on community control. Preston wrote in his application for early release that after he got to prison, he began to accept help from family and mental health staff, that his anxiety attacks had stopped and that family members supported him as he completed several programs, including a certificate of completion through Ashland University with a 3.5 GPA, Preston wrote that he planned to continue his education when released to earn his degree.
While under supervision, Preston twice paid fines for being found in possession of alcohol.
In October 2005, the court him released from community control on the robbery charge and restored him to full citizenship.
Jared Preston's name turned up in county court records in two paternity cases filed between 2006 and 2009 - both times as a plaintiff rather than defendant, suing for allocation of parental rights and responsibilities.
The Sheriff's Office Major Crimes Unit said its investigation is continuing. The Bureau of Criminal Investigation was asked to respond to process the crime scene.
Linda Martz and Gere Goble contributed to this story.
lwhitmir@nncogannett.com
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