A Prairie Township man has been sentenced to 23 to 28½ years in prison for beating 62-year-old Phillip Baldwin to death during a break-in at Baldwin's Hall Road home last year. Anthony Kuhn pleaded guilty on Monday to aggravated burglary, voluntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence in connection with Baldwin's death.
Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Andria Noble handed down the sentence, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Kuhn was 43 at the time of his guilty plea, though he was reported as 42 when he was first charged in the case last year. Baldwin lived in the 6500 block of Hall Road in Prairie Township, where he was killed on May 1, 2025.
A Night That Turned Deadly
Baldwin's brother left their home around 12:53 a.m. that night to take a roommate to the hospital, and when he returned nearly three hours later, he found the house ransacked and items missing. He reported finding Phillip unresponsive and possibly dead, according to a Franklin County Sheriff's Office release cited in the Dispatch report. Prairie Township Fire Department medics pronounced Baldwin dead at the scene at 4:38 p.m. that day, a detail also reported by NBC4.
Baldwin suffered substantial head injuries, including an open skull fracture, and his right ear was nearly severed from his head, according to a criminal complaint described by ABC6 On Your Side. A second witness told investigators that Nichole Adkins returned from work to Kuhn's trailer around 12:30 a.m., then went inside the Hall Road residence to shower around 2 a.m., with Kuhn entering a few minutes after her, per the complaint.
Witness Accounts Describe Frantic Aftermath
According to a witness statement, Kuhn returned to the trailer about 30 minutes later appearing frantic, saying he could not believe what he had done and that they needed to leave — though he did not say what he had done, per the criminal complaint. Adkins later said she heard a commotion while showering and found Kuhn inside the home with Baldwin already dead, and that Kuhn had blood on his face and was holding a baseball bat, according to her statement described in the complaint.
Kuhn allegedly handed the bat to Adkins and told her to stand watch at the front door, the complaint states. Adkins also said Kuhn told her he would have to kill another witness to cover up Baldwin's killing. Kuhn, Adkins and a second witness then traveled to Wedgewood Village Apartments to buy drugs, which Kuhn later confirmed to detectives along with confirming they had all been at the Hall Road trailer, per the complaint.
Evidence Scattered, Then Recovered
Adkins discarded Baldwin's wallet and work hat in a sewer drain basin, while Kuhn discarded Baldwin's baseball cards and medication bottles at an apartment complex on Fisher Road, according to a witness statement cited by the Dispatch. The same reporting indicates the pair also discarded medication bottles, baseball cards and Kuhn's own clothes elsewhere, and detectives ultimately retrieved all of the discarded items, including Kuhn's bloodied clothing, per the criminal complaint. ABC6's report separately noted Kuhn was accused of ditching stolen items and bloody clothes at an apartment complex dumpster.
When detectives told Kuhn that Baldwin had died, he reportedly asked whether that was true before invoking his right to an attorney, according to the complaint. Both Kuhn and Adkins were held in Franklin County jail on $2 million bond each after their arrests, with a preliminary hearing initially scheduled for May 12, 2025.
Charges and the Path to Sentencing
Both Kuhn and Adkins were charged with murder in connection with Baldwin's death, with Kuhn also facing one count of aggravated robbery. A Franklin County grand jury later indicted the pair on multiple charges including aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, murder, theft and tampering with evidence, per ABC6's report at the time. NBC4's earlier coverage indicated the two faced 11 felony charges each, for 22 total charges between them, with investigators saying Kuhn allegedly assaulted Baldwin with a baseball bat while Adkins helped discard evidence at a sewer drain and dumpster.
Under Ohio law, aggravated burglary — one of the charges to which Kuhn ultimately pleaded guilty — is classified as a felony of the first degree, according to the Ohio Revised Code. Kuhn's guilty plea resolved his portion of the case through a negotiated agreement that reduced the original murder and aggravated murder counts to voluntary manslaughter, aggravated burglary and tampering with evidence.
