Rep renews efforts to extradite woman

By Ed Runyan

The situation is stalled, the Trumbull County prosecutor has said.

WARREN — U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan has renewed his efforts to have a former Newton Falls woman returned to the United States to face a murder charge.

This time the congressman from Niles has written to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to help extradite Claudia Hoerig, and he has teamed with U.S. Rep. John Boccieri of Alliance, D-16th, who was elected to Congress last November.

The letter notes that Brazil has offered to try the case in Brazil “provided that the local prosecutor” in Trumbull County “pay all costs.”

The letter continues, “This suggestion is unacceptable because both sides in the case would be unfairly prejudiced by the lack of available evidence and witnesses, and the enormous costs required to provide evidence and witnesses that are available.”

Claudia Hoerig was indicted in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court on an aggravated murder charge accusing her of killing her husband, Karl Hoerig, in their Newton Township home March 12, 2007.

Karl Hoerig was a major in the Air Force Reserves, a pilot with 200 combat missions. He flew C-130s out of the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna and was a pilot with Southwest Airlines.

Boccieri, formerly of New Middletown, was a personal friend of the pilot’s, the letter says.

Claudia Hoerig fled to her native country of Brazil after her husband’s death, and Brazil’s extradition treaty with the United States does not require Brazil to return Brazilian natives to the United States who have been accused of killing a U.S. citizen while living in or visiting the United States.

Dennis Watkins, Trumbull County prosecutor, wrote to President Barack Obama last month seeking similar assistance from the new administration.

Watkins said the situation is stalled because he sought additional information from Brazil about the possibility of a trial in that country and has heard nothing in reply.

“Mr. Watkins can provide the requisite evidence that the charge has merit and that a fair trial will be conducted in the United States,” the letter states.

Ryan, D-17th, previously has attempted to get the treaty changed and to eliminate the foreign aid the United States gives to Brazil.

An affidavit prepared by Watkin’s office says Claudia Hoerig purchased a five-shot, .357-caliber revolver a month before her husband’s death and practiced shooting it at the Warren Shooting Range.

The affidavit says she used the weapon to shoot her husband twice in the back of the neck and once in the back of the head at their West Ninth Street home.

The two were married in June 2005 in Las Vegas.

According to the affidavit, Karl Hoerig told another Southwest Airlines pilot that there were marital problems from the beginning, and he feared his wife’s reaction when he told her he was leaving her.

runyan@vindy.com