Frederick Harroff pleaded guilty after prosecutors said he beat, strangled and set fire to a home.

LISBON, Ohio — A Columbiana County judge sentenced Frederick L. Harroff to at least 39 years in prison after his ex-wife said he beat her with a wooden baseball bat, put a rope around her neck and set her home on fire.

The sentence closed the trial-level case but did not end the legal fight. Harroff, 66, pleaded guilty in March to attempted murder, aggravated arson, felonious assault, kidnapping and strangulation. Judge Scott Washam gave him a prison term above the range prosecutors sought, saying the attack was “truly vicious and horrific.”

The case began on June 2, 2025, inside a home in Fairfield Township, near Columbiana. The woman was lying in bed just after 10 p.m. when Harroff returned after leaving earlier and taking several pills, according to testimony and court accounts. She told the court he said, “I have nothing to live for, you’re not going to live either,” before the beating began. The attack did not stop with the bat. She said Harroff put a rope around her neck, tried to strangle her with his hands and tried to tie her up as the threat grew. “An entire hour, I fought for my life,” she said at sentencing.

Investigators later described a scene that matched the violence the woman recounted in court. Officers found a bed soaked with blood and a bloody rope inside the home. The woman, covered in blood and bruises, escaped through a back door and reached a neighbor’s house. Harroff left the scene before police arrived. Officers later found him hiding in woods about 100 yards from his trailer on Columbiana-Lisbon Road. He had blood on him and burn marks, details authorities treated as part of the evidence tying him to the assault and fire. The blaze destroyed the woman’s home, according to reports from the sentencing hearing.

Harroff’s punishment was far longer than the sentence the state requested. Prosecutors asked Washam to impose a term of 20 years to 25 1/2 years. The judge instead ordered a minimum of 39 years, with the possibility of 44 1/2 years if state prison officials later decide the additional time is required under Ohio’s sentencing system. The decision followed testimony from the woman and members of her family. The woman called Harroff “an evil, cruel, malicious monster” and said he had shown no remorse. Her niece told the court the attack had not ended the family’s strength. “He did not win,” she said. “He did not break her and he did not break us.”

Harroff addressed the court before the sentence was announced. He said he accepted responsibility but also said he did not remember all of what happened that night. “I never wanted to see her hurt,” Harroff said. “I take responsibility for everything that happened that night. I don’t remember all that happened. I was not in my right mind.” Washam said he considered Harroff’s military service, long work history, mental health issues, suicide attempts and lack of a prior criminal record. The judge said those facts mattered, but that they could not outweigh what happened on June 2, 2025. The court record had already included psychiatric reviews after the defense raised questions about competency and sanity.

The case moved through several stages before the guilty plea. Harroff was first held on a $500,000 cash or surety bond after his arrest. A grand jury later indicted him on multiple felony counts, including attempted murder, kidnapping, aggravated arson and felonious assault. He pleaded not guilty at arraignment and had trial dates set while the case remained pending. In late 2025, the defense sought competency and sanity evaluations. Washam later adopted reports from the Forensic Psychiatric Center of Northeast Ohio, including one finding Harroff competent and another finding he did not present with symptoms of a mental defect at the time of the offense.

Those rulings set the case on a path toward trial before the plea changed the outcome. Harroff pleaded guilty in March 2026, avoiding a jury trial on the charges. The plea meant the sentencing hearing became the main public forum for the woman, her relatives, prosecutors and Harroff to speak about the attack. The woman described not only the physical injuries but the loss of the home and the memory of the threats she said Harroff made as the house burned. Prosecutors pointed to the length of the attack, the use of several methods of violence and the fire as reasons for a serious prison term.

The aftermath now shifts to appeals court. Harroff filed an appeal in May with the Seventh District Court of Appeals after receiving the 39-year minimum sentence. The filing means a higher court will review legal issues from the case, not retry the facts before a new jury. The conviction and sentence remain the controlling judgment unless an appellate court changes them. Harroff remains sentenced to prison for the attempted murder, arson, assault, kidnapping and strangulation counts.

The next milestone is action by the Seventh District Court of Appeals on the sentencing challenge. As of May 19, the case stands with Harroff convicted by guilty plea, sentenced to at least 39 years and pursuing an appeal.

Author note: Last updated May 19, 2026.