Two other men still face March trials tied to Brittany Fuhr-Storms’ death.
HAMILTON, Ohio — A Butler County judge sentenced James Robert Rothenbusch to 30 months in prison Thursday as relatives of Brittany Fuhr-Storms, a pregnant woman who died in 2025, described a loss they said was made worse by a dayslong delay before authorities were called and a later roadside discovery.
The hearing marked the first prison sentence among three defendants charged in the case, but it did not end the investigation’s public fallout. Prosecutors say Fuhr-Storms was dead for days before her remains were moved, and they argue those actions helped hide key evidence. The sentencing also set a clearer path for what comes next: two separate jury trials in March for men accused of taking part in the same cover-up.
Rothenbusch, 52, was sentenced on a single count of complicity to tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony, after he entered a guilty plea in Butler County Common Pleas Court. Prosecutors said Judge Keith Spaeth imposed the 30-month term. Rothenbusch addressed the court and Fuhr-Storms’ relatives, offering an apology and saying he wished he had made different choices. He told the judge he acted out of fear and said drug use clouded his judgment during the hours after Fuhr-Storms died.
For Fuhr-Storms’ family, the hearing was less about his explanation and more about the silence they say followed her death. Her brother, Nathan Isaacs, told the court he spent the summer moving from anticipation about a new baby to the shock of planning funeral arrangements. He said his sister was 28, a mother, and pregnant when she died. “She died in his house with my nephew,” Isaacs said, describing the baby Fuhr-Storms was carrying. Isaacs said he could not understand why no one called for help.
Authorities have said Fuhr-Storms died of a drug overdose and that her death was not immediately reported. Investigators said her remains stayed inside a Middletown residence for several days. The case drew widespread attention after deputies responded on Aug. 3, 2025, to a report of a large plastic tote along a rural stretch of Fort Anthony Road in Jackson Township, in Montgomery County. Investigators have said the tote held Fuhr-Storms’ remains and that her unborn child did not survive.
The sentencing records show prosecutors narrowed the case against Rothenbusch as part of the plea. The state agreed to dismiss an aggravated possession of drugs charge and several misdemeanor counts, including failure to report knowledge of a death and illegal use or possession of drug paraphernalia. Prosecutors have described the remaining felony as a way to hold him accountable for conduct they say complicated the investigation, even as other allegations were set aside under the agreement.
Two other defendants are still awaiting trial. Walter Edward Wade, 44, and Ricky J. Sheppard, 47, each face a felony count of tampering with evidence and a charge of gross abuse of a corpse, prosecutors have said. Court schedules list Wade for a jury trial on March 9 and Sheppard for a jury trial on March 16. Defense positions have not been decided by a jury, and both men are presumed innocent unless convicted.
In the hallway after the hearing, relatives spoke quietly with each other and with supporters, while lawyers moved to other cases on the docket. The sentence answered one question about punishment, but it left the larger timeline at the center of the case: when Fuhr-Storms died, who knew she was in danger, and what decisions were made in the days before deputies found the tote on the roadside. The next major test of those questions will come in the March trials.
Author note: Last updated February 15, 2026.