Ohio man given life sentence in slaying, mutilation of woman killed in Gerogia

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Posted 11:55AM on Thursday, February 7, 2002

SUMMERVILLE, Ga. - An Ohio man was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty but mentally ill to killing and mutilating his girlfriend two years ago on a trip to Florida. He was arrested in northeast Alabama after violent confrontations there. Hayward Bissell, 39, formerly of Norwalk, Ohio, was indicted by a grand jury Tuesday in the January 2000 slaying of Patricia Ann Booher. Investigators believe she was killed at a convenience store in Chattooga County, Ga. Superior Court Judge Kristina Cook Connelly sentenced Bissell on Wednesday. The guilty but mentally ill plea will require Georgia Department of Corrections officials to supervise Bissell's condition, including medication and housing at a prison suitable for his psychiatric care, District Attorney Herbert "Buzz" Franklin said. Police said Booher, also of Norwalk, had been stabbed numerous times, her eyes gouged and some of her organs partly removed. A hand and leg had been cut off, and she was sitting in the front seat of Bissell's car. Bissell told investigators he was a Secret Service agent on a special mission and was looking for a hospital morgue to make a report. Bissell was arrested days after the slaying in Hammondville, Ala., when officers making a traffic stop found Booher's body. Bissell and Booher were en route to Winter Haven, Fla., to visit Bissell's father. In Alabama, Bissell was accused of trying to kill Donald Pirch of Fort Payne, by striking him with a car, and stabbing James Pumphrey of Mentone with a knife at Pumphrey's home. Last November, Sheriff Cecil Reed in DeKalb County, Ala., said Bissell was taking medication for his mental state and rarely went outside, with his weight dropping from an estimated 400 pounds at the time of his arrest to about half that.