Man accused in beating death allegedly breaks his bond... again

For the third time, a a Glouster man who is charged with allegedly beating a Buchtel man to death last May has been accused of violating his bond – this time by not paying the bill for his electronic ankle monitor.

Gary Wooten, 21, has twice before been brought up before a judge by prosecutors for having allegedly failed to follow the rules for his release from jail, which involve staying under house arrest at a relative's home and wearing an ankle monitor.

In each of those two cases, a judge found that there were extenuating circumstances, and allowed Wooten to remain free on $4,000 bond. In the first case, Wooten had reportedly left his mother's home during a weather-related power outage; in the second, he traveled to Columbus to get emergency medical treatment for a serious dog bite.

Last Monday the Athens County Prosecutor's office filed another notice of bond violation, claiming that on that date Wooten was 26 days behind in making payments on his ankle monitor. (Defendants are typically required to pay for the attachment and use of the monitor.)

Assistant county prosecutor Michael Prisley has asked Athens County Common Pleas Judge Michael Ward to revoke Wooten's bond, which would send him back to jail.

The county's other common pleas judge, L. Alan Goldsberry, heard the previous two bond-revocation motions.

Wooten is facing counts of felonious assault and involuntary manslaughter. He is charged with having caused the death of 20-year-old Harley Aaron Pruitt by hitting him repeatedly during some type of altercation in the home of a Chauncey man.

In October, authorities added another felony charge, of robbery, in connection with an April 2011 incident, in which Wooten and another man are alleged to have attacked and robbed a man in Athens.

Wooten is tentatively scheduled for trial in late February.