The woman told the court she fought for her life for about an hour.
LISBON, Ohio — A woman’s account of escaping a burning home after a bat attack helped lead a Columbiana County judge to sentence her ex-husband to at least 39 years in prison.
The sentencing of Frederick L. Harroff, 66, centered on what the woman said happened inside the Fairfield Township home on June 2, 2025, and what remained after she got out. Harroff pleaded guilty to attempted murder, aggravated arson, felonious assault, kidnapping and strangulation. Judge Scott Washam imposed a term that could extend to 44 1/2 years.
The woman described the attack as an hourlong fight that began while she was in bed and ended with an escape through the back door. She said Harroff returned after taking several pills and began making threats. “I have nothing to live for, you’re not going to live either,” she recalled him saying. She said he then beat her with a wooden baseball bat. The violence escalated, she told the court, when he placed a rope around her neck, tried to strangle her with his hands and tried to bind her. She said he also told her he would burn the home down and both of them would die.
The path out of the house became one of the central facts of the case. The woman was bloodied and bruised when she escaped through the rear of the home and reached a neighbor’s house. Police later entered the residence and found a bed soaked with blood and a bloody rope. The fire damaged the home beyond the assault scene and turned the case into an aggravated arson prosecution as well as an attempted murder case. Harroff was not at the home when officers arrived. Police later found him hiding in woods about 100 yards from his trailer on Columbiana-Lisbon Road, with blood and burn marks on him.
The hearing also showed the lasting impact on the woman’s family. The woman called Harroff “an evil, cruel, malicious monster” and told the court he had shown no remorse. Relatives spoke after her and framed the case around survival. Her niece said, “He did not win. He did not break her and he did not break us.” The statements gave Washam a record of harm beyond the listed offenses. They described a lost home, a violent memory and a family forced into court nearly 11 months after the attack. Those statements came before the judge announced a sentence far above what prosecutors had requested.
Harroff’s statement to the court was shorter and focused on responsibility and memory. He said he did not want the woman hurt and accepted responsibility for what happened. “I don’t remember all that happened,” he said. “I was not in my right mind.” The court had already examined questions about his mental state before sentencing. The defense had sought competency and sanity reviews, and Washam adopted reports from the Forensic Psychiatric Center of Northeast Ohio. One report found Harroff competent to stand trial. Another found he did not present with symptoms of a mental defect at the time of the offense.
Washam said he considered the parts of Harroff’s life that might support a lesser sentence. The judge noted Harroff’s military service, decades of steady employment, mental health issues, suicide attempts and lack of a prior criminal record. But Washam said those factors were overcome by the facts of the night itself. He called the conduct “truly vicious and horrific.” Prosecutors had asked for a sentence between 20 years and 25 1/2 years. Washam ordered a minimum of 39 years, with the possibility of added time depending on future prison review under Ohio law.
The case had been moving toward trial before Harroff changed his plea. He had been indicted in August 2025 on multiple felony charges after prosecutors said evidence showed he attacked the woman with a heavy wooden baseball bat and tried to burn the residence. He pleaded not guilty at arraignment and remained jailed under a $500,000 cash or surety bond. A request to reduce bond was denied. Trial dates were set, delayed and reset as the court handled competency and sanity issues. By late March 2026, Harroff entered guilty pleas that removed the need for a jury trial.
The legal record now includes both the plea and the survivor’s account. Because Harroff pleaded guilty, there was no trial testimony from witnesses before a jury. The sentencing hearing instead became the place where the court heard the woman’s narrative, the family’s response, Harroff’s statement and the judge’s reasons for punishment. The court record also includes the physical evidence described by police, including the bloody bed, the rope, burn marks on Harroff and the location where he was arrested. Those facts formed the foundation for the sentence.
The case is not fully over. Harroff filed an appeal in May with the Seventh District Court of Appeals. The appellate filing means a higher court will review legal claims from the Common Pleas Court case. It does not create a new trial by itself and does not undo the guilty plea unless the appeals court orders relief. The woman’s home, the bedroom evidence and the escape to a neighbor’s house remain central facts in the lower court record.
Harroff is sentenced to at least 39 years while the appeal proceeds. The next formal step is the appellate briefing schedule in the Seventh District Court of Appeals.
Author note: Last updated May 19, 2026.