Carisa M. Walz

INDEPENDENCE -- Carisa M. Mitchell Walz, 30, of Cincinnati, formerly of Independence, died Saturday, June 6.

Survivors include her daughter, Jacey Schunk of Cincinnati; son, Trustin Bronson of Louisville; father, Vernon Mitchell of Erlanger; sister, Alyssa Alford of Independence; brother, Nathanial Ray Alford of Independence; and grandmother, Mable Mitchell of Cincinnati.

Visitation will be 5-8 p.m. Wednesday, June 10 and service will be 10 a.m. Thursday, June 11, at Dobbling Funeral Home, Fort Thomas. Burial will be in St. Peter and Paul Cemetery, Cincinnati.
Memorials; Alyssa & Nathanial Ray Alford Fund, c/o U.S. Bank, University Branch, 530 E. University Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45219.

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Man charged with running over wife

A South Fairmount man with a history of domestic violence charges has been charged in the death of his wife after law enforcement officials say he ran over her with his car early Saturday morning in Boone County.

Paul Walz, 41, was charged by the Boone County Sheriff’s Office with second-degree manslaughter, operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol and violating a protection order in connection with the accident, which took place at about 3 a.m. Saturday.

Walz and his wife, 30-year-old Carisa Walz, were traveling eastbound on Ky. 20 after attending a party and had just passed through the intersection with Ky. 212 when she opened the door and leaned out to vomit, Boone County sheriff’s spokesman Tom Scheben says. She then fell out and was run over, he said.

Scheben said he didn’t know how fast Paul Walz was driving and that it was “out of the question” that his wife was wearing her seat belt at the time.

Walz didn’t call 911 right away, Scheben said. He put his wife back in the car and continued driving his gold Hyundai Sonata, first to River Road, then up I-275 west into Indiana and then into Ohio, Scheben said. He then called 911 at about 3:40 a.m., telling the dispatcher he had a “horrible accident” and was trying to get to University Hospital.

Walz said on the 911 recording that Carisa Walz – whom he called his girlfriend – had too much to drink at the party and told him to slow down the car so she could vomit. She didn’t let him slow down far enough and fell out of the car, he told the dispatcher.

“I got her back to conscious (sic) and I made sure she was breathing and everything, and I put her back in the car,” Walz told the dispatcher.

Walz said his wife had passed out in the backseat and was cold to the touch. The dispatcher told Walz to find a mile marker and pull over so she could send an ambulance. After Walz pulled over at the Hamilton-Cleves exit off I-74, he told the dispatcher that his wife wasn’t breathing and began to cry.

“Baby baby, come on wake up, baby,” he sobbed. “Please wake up.”

The dispatcher told Walz how to administer CPR. Walz told her that he got his wife to vomit again but that she was still not breathing. She was pronounced dead after emergency personnel transported her to the hospital. Hamilton County authorities notified the Boone County Sheriff’s Office about the fatal accident.

Carisa Walz died just two weeks after Hamilton County sheriff’s deputies charged her husband with domestic violence and felonious assault in another incident involving his car.

She said in a May 23 Hamilton County Municipal Court affidavit that he ran over her right foot with his car, which she was trying to prevent him from taking after an argument about their pending divorce.

Hamilton County Municipal Court issued an order of protection against Walz on May 25, which ordered him not to come within 500 feet of his wife.

Walz was admitted to the Boone County Jail on $252,500 bond Saturday. He is scheduled for a video arraignment before a Boone County judge Monday morning.