Jacob Harper charged with murder in connection to the death of Newark man The Daily Jeffersonian Guernsey County Common Pleas Court Judge Daniel G. Padden has designated Pritchard-Laughlin Civic Center as a courthouse for a murder trial scheduled to begin later this month. Jacob Russell Harper, 26, Newcomerstown, faces one count each of aggravated murder with a three-year firearm specification; murder with a three-year firearm specification; and improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle, a fourth-degree felony. The five-day trial is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. on April 19. The trial will begin with voir dire at 8:30 a.m. Harper was indicted by a Guernsey County grand jury on Oct. 8, 2020, for his alleged crimes less than two months earlier on Aug. 23.