Beer - It's Worth Killing For!

Police: Slaying all over beer Trenton man beaten, stabbed

By Eileen Kelley Enquirer staff writer

TRENTON - Steve Eakin liked his beer, and a fight over the beverage led to his death, police say.

Eakin was a regular at the police station, generally for infractions involving beer.

Still, police say, he was harmless and alcohol never fueled anger even when Eakin was being arrested.

"Steve was harmless. He was just the kind of guy that liked to drink a lot," said Trenton Police Chief Rodney Hale.

An argument on the bank of a pond over some beer ultimately led to Eakin's death late Thursday or early Friday, police say.

Eakin's body was pulled from an abandoned quarry-pit pond Friday after a witness to his death went to police.

Johnny Ray Watkins, 32 of Middletown, is charged in the killing.

Eakin and Watkins, as well as the tipster and two other witnesses, had been drinking Thursday evening, police said. Two of the witnesses are teenagers.

Eakin was upset with two of the three witnesses, who admitted to stealing some beer he had stashed away a few weeks back.

Eakin, who had set up a homeless camp along the Great Miami River a few hundred yards from the pond, wasn't willing to accept their apologies, police say.

Hale said that as Eakin walked away, Watkins hit him with some sort of object. Eakin was also stabbed.

"It all seems to be over beer," Hale said.

The homicide is only the second in this Butler County city of 11,000.

A trail of blood led to the pond, where police and the Butler County Marine Patrol pulled Eakin's body out Friday. Nearby were the charred remains of a campfire and several spent beer cans.

Witnesses told police Eakin was killed sometime between 11:30 p.m. Thursday and

1:30 a.m. Friday.

"Mr. Eakins was a regular down there," said Sgt. Dave Rosenfelder of the Trenton Police Department.

Eakin was disabled after losing his foot in a train accident when he was 13. Family members said he suffered depression. He spent a lot of time at the homeless camp. He also lived with his mother.

To the police, he was happy-go-lucky and never bothered anyone.

"It's a shame," Rosenfelder said.

Jerry Stout was shocked to hear that Watkins was arrested on murder charges.

"I can't believe it. I can't believe it. I can't believe it," said Stout, a former bartender at the Hot Spot, a bar across the street from the Trenton police station.

"Johnny Ray has always been a real nice guy. He's always smiling and always laughing."

Stout called Watkins a Hot Spot regular, especially on karaoke nights when he would dazzle and humor the crowd with his impression of Garth Brooks or Tim McGraw's "Angry All The Time."

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