Person of interest in Park Layne death being held on $250,000 bond

Man pleads not guilty to violating protection order.

A 48-year-old man charged with three counts of violating a protection order following the suspicious death of a Park Layne woman on Thursday pleaded not guilty to those charges.

Noel Coles Jr., of Fairborn, was arraigned at the Clark County Municipal Court. He was given a $250,000 bond and remains an inmate in the Clark County jail.

Coles waived extradition Wednesday following his arrest Tuesday evening in Hancock County, Indiana. Clark County Sheriff’s deputies returned Coles to Ohio, according to a news release issued Wednesday night. He was booked shortly after 7 p.m. into the Clark County Jail, online records show.

The Clark County Sheriff’s Office identified Noel Coles as a person of interest after deputies found Jacqueline Coles dead in her home Tuesday while conducting a wellbeing check.

The violation of protection order charges against Noel Coles stem from a petition Jacqueline Coles filed against him on Aug. 5 for her and her three children, according to court records.

Noel Coles is arraigned in Clark County Municipal Court Thursday. BILL LACKEY/STAFF

Credit: Bill Lackey

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Credit: Bill Lackey

She stated in the petition that Noel Coles had threatened to kill her “multiple times.” She cited an incident when he was at her residence “to talk” in her backyard and covered her mouth to muffle her screaming. She said her teenaged son walked outside and saw it happen.

“I fear for my life and that of my children,” she wrote.

Jacqueline Coles was the director of nursing at Laurelwood Assisted Living in Dayton.

A memorial has been erected around a tree in the front yard at 141 Weinland Street in Park Layne for Jacqueline Coles. BILL LACKEY/STAFF

Credit: Bill Lackey

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Credit: Bill Lackey

Clark County deputies were called Tuesday morning to Jacqueline Coles’ home in the 100 block of Weinland Street in Park Layne to check on her wellbeing. A co-worker said he was on the phone with her around 7:30 a.m. when he heard screaming and the phone disconnected abruptly. Deputies found broken glass at the rear of the Weinland Street home, although it was unclear whether the glass was recently broken, the call disposition said.

Noel Coles told a deputy that around 7:25 a.m. Tuesday he was near Jacqueline Coles’ house “watching the kids get on the bus,” according to an affidavit in the case.

Clark County Sheriff’s deputies and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations are investigating Jacqueline Coles’ death.

They have not said how she died; however, before Noel Coles was captured in Indiana authorities described him as “armed and dangerous.” Also not clear is whether investigators have recovered any weapons that may be involved in the case.