Lionel Gore: Ohio man gets life for decapitating mother and setting house on fire with nephew, 6, inside
Warning: The following article contains graphic description of crime that could be triggering to some readers. Discretion is advised.
MARIETTA, OHIO: Lionel Gore of Ohio was arrested for brutally murdering his adoptive mother Diane Gore on November 5, 2021. According to court filings from the Washington County Sheriff's Office, a 6-year-old boy, who had witnessed the entire crime, told the detectives that he saw his uncle (Lionel) decapitating his grandmother's neck with a saw. The child eventually had to crawl outside to get away from the smoke after the 34-year-old man had set the house on fire with the boy still inside.
Lionel pleaded guilty to the crime on Thursday, October 13. He admitted that he chopped his mother’s head off with a saw inside her New Matamoras home on the Ohio-West Virginia border and set her house on fire.
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According to reports, firefighters discovered Diane's headless body in the house's master bedroom. Her dismembered head was reportedly on the ground nearby. Gore attempted to flee the scene in a car, but he was quickly apprehended by the police. Detectives claimed that after refusing to cooperate at first, Lionel finally admitted to killing her. “I cut her head off and set her on fire," he said. According to the Sheriff's reports, he killed Diane because "the Holy Spirit told him to, as she was the devil", as per the Marietta Times.
Lionel pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated murder in the horrific slaying of Diane on Thursday, October 13, 2022, in front of Judge Mark Kerenyi in the Washington County Court of Common Pleas, reports WTAP. The Gore family's road toward justice has been long, but they directly addressed Lionel in a series of emotional statements in court.
Judge Kerenyi accepted the plea and Gore was given a life sentence in jail with the possibility of parole after serving 25 years. Judge Kerenyi then asked Gore if he would like to apologize to his family. He reportedly said, "No."
Gore had initially been charged with nine additional felonies, including four counts of aggravated arson, three counts of child endangerment, one act of tampering with evidence, and one count of mistreatment of a corpse. The prosecutors agreed to remove the other nine charges in exchange for his guilty plea in his adopted mother's horrifying murder.
See the plea documents here and here.