Ron Welch
Muskingum County Prosecutor
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, June 10, 2026
Appeal Denied for Convicted Sex Offender Ashton Stotts
(ZANESVILLE, OH)
In July of 2025 Ashton Stotts was convicted by a jury of three separate counts of Sexual Battery. At the sentencing hearing Judge Cottrill sentenced Stotts to two of a possible fifteen years in prison. She is also required to register as a Tier 3 Sex Offender. Stotts is currently serving her sentence at the Ohio Reformatory for Women with an expected release date of July 27, 2027.
Case Details:
https://www.muskingumprosecutor.org/News-Events/Woman-Convicted-At-Jury-Trial-Of-Sexual-Battery-Sentenced-To-Only-24-Months-In-Prison/289/
Following the felony indictment, the case gained significant public interest due to the co-defendant in the case being Stotts’s husband. The married couple elected to have separate jury trials in which Wesley Stotts’s trial returned not guilty verdicts. However; in the Ashton Stotts case, the jury returned guilty verdicts as to the three counts of Sexual Battery.
Ashton Stotts filed an appeal seeking to overturn her conviction in the case. The appeal argued that the State did not present enough evidence for a jury to find her guilty.
The Court of Appeals reviewed the entire trial, weighed the evidence, considered the credibility of witnesses and determined the evidence presented at the hearing was sufficient for the jury to find Ashton Stotts guilty.
In their response, the Court of Appeals noted, “The jury was free to accept or reject any or all of the testimony of the witnesses and to assess their credibility accordingly. Moreover, the jury viewed video and saw pictures and used that information to assist in its credibility determinations. Upon review of the record, we hold that the jurors, in resolving any conflicts in the evidence, did not create a manifest miscarriage of justice . . .”
Ashton Stotts will continue to serve the remainder of her two-year prison sentence.
“The State could have easily given up on this case after the husband was found not guilty but there was additional evidence available to use against the wife at trial that could not be used against the husband,” stated Prosecutor Ron Welch. “While we would have liked to have seen both people responsible held accountable, we are thankful that the second jury reached the correct decision and the victim received some justice.”
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