YOUNGSTOWN Wife's trial testimony recounts day of horror

Testimony in Michael Hogan's trial began today.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Louise Ruble remembered doing yard work with her husband and going to the store to buy candy bars and a sprinkler can on a sunny, hot morning in May 2002.
But then, a trip to drop off recyclable items, something they did about once a month, turned their day into a nightmare.
Mrs. Ruble, 70, said she and her husband, John, had just finished unloading items into recycling bins behind the Boardman Township fire station on South Avenue. She didn't see that another car had pulled in.
"The next thing I saw was my husband hanging on that car," the Struthers woman said this morning in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Defendant
Michael Hogan, 38, of Boardman, is accused of driving the navy blue 1987 Cadillac Fleetwood that ran over and killed 71-year-old John Ruble. Hogan is on trial, charged with murder, in the courtroom of Judge James C. Evans.
Mrs. Ruble said she watched as her husband fell off the car and his legs were run over, then saw the car speed forward to run over her husband again, dragging him along the driveway. He was thrown from under the car into the grass as the driver sped north on South Avenue.
She said her husband had been chasing the driver of the Cadillac, who had just stolen her purse from the front seat of their car.
Testimony in the trial began today. Eight men and four women jurors took a bus ride Wednesday afternoon to the recycling site and to Mill Creek Park and a cemetery. Those were among the stops lawyers had asked that jurors be permitted to view before they began hearing testimony.
The recycling site is where authorities say Hogan snatched the purse, as Mrs. Ruble sat in the couple's car. Police say Hogan drove up, grabbed the purse from the Rubles' car and ran back to his car.
Assistant Prosecutor Jeffrey Limbian said Mrs. Ruble is among the 20 or so prosecution witnesses expected to testify during the trial.
Other sites
Besides the recycling site where Ruble was killed, jurors also viewed the site in Mill Creek Park where Mrs. Ruble's purse was eventually recovered, and to Calvary Cemetery on the city's West Side.
In his opening statement to jurors Wednesday, defense attorney James T. Hartford said another purse-snatching happened at the cemetery the day before Ruble was killed. He believes the same person committed both crimes, but insists it was not Hogan.
Hartford said he will present four witnesses at trial who will say Hogan was not the driver who ran over Ruble. Hogan told The Vindicator in July 2002 that he was framed by police.
Hartford asked Judge Evans on Wednesday to drop the charges against Hogan and order him released from custody, arguing that prosecutors have taken too long to bring Hogan to trial. The judge denied the request.