Brinkman, linked with five homicides, pleads not guilty
The man charged in the death of Kent State fashion design student Taylor Pifer and her family plead not guilty in an arrangement Friday morning at the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.
George Brinkman, 45, appeared in court and plead not guilty. Judge Brendan Sheehan also revoked Brinkman’s bond, originally set at $75 million. Brinkman’s next court appearance is a pretrial on July 9.
Brinkman was indicted Tuesday on 13 counts of aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, kidnapping and offenses against a human corpse.
If convicted, he would be eligible for the death penalty, according to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office.
On June 11, Taylor Pifer was found dead in her mother’s house on Ridge Road, along with Pifer’s mother, 45-year-old Suzanne Taylor, and her sister, 18-year-old Kylie Pifer, who studied biology at Bowling Green State University, who were also killed.
Cuyahoga County prosecutors said Brinkman placed the three bodies on a bed inside their home after he killed them.
During Brinkman’s initial court appearance in Parma Municipal Court on June 15, the original aggravated murder charges stated Brinkman had cut Suzanne Taylor’s throat with a knife, smothered Taylor Pifer with a pillow and strangled Kylie Pifer with a phone cord.
Separately, on June 13, the Stark County Sheriff’s Department charged Brickman with the deaths of a Stark County couple — Rogell Eugene John, 71, and his wife Roberta Ray John, 64 — who were found dead June 12 in their Lake Township home.
Jenna Kuczkowski is the managing editor. Contact her at [email protected].