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Man to be tried sixth time for murder
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Christopher Anderson
YOUNGSTOWN
Christopher Anderson won’t be given a get-out-of-jail-free card, nor will he escape the prosecution’s sixth attempt to convict him of a 2002 murder.
On Tuesday, Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court overruled a defense motion to dismiss the murder charge and free Anderson from the county jail, where he has been held since his Aug. 22, 2002, arrest.
With Anderson jailed under $500,000 bond, his jury trial is set to begin March 21 before Judge Evans.
“Retrial for the same offense after reversal of a prior conviction does not violate the double jeopardy protection,” in the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Judge Evans wrote in his judgment entry.
“If a mistrial is ordered, the case may be tried again at once or at some later time,” the judge wrote, citing state law.
Anderson, 43, of South Main Street, Austintown, is charged in the June 3, 2002, strangulation death of Amber Zurcher in her Austintown apartment.
Anderson was one of several people who attended a party in Zurcher’s Compass West apartment. After everyone else left, Anderson returned and strangled the 22-year-old Zurcher with a cord, prosecutors allege.
Another trial for Anderson would violate constitutional due-process requirements and the prohibition against double jeopardy, Anderson’s lawyer, John B. Juhasz, argued unsuccessfully in his motion for dismissal.
“The state has offered no new evidence linking Anderson to the murder,” Juhasz wrote. The only likely results of a new trial will be “expense, harassment and anxiety” for Anderson and another hung jury, Juhasz added.
Juhasz cited dismissals by other courts after hung jury mistrials when it appeared the same evidence would be presented in a retrial and another hung jury was likely.
Dawn P. Cantalamessa and Rebecca L. Doherty, assistant county prosecutors, however, asked Judge Evans to overrule Juhasz’s motion, saying Juhasz “does not cite any controlling case law that requires the state to dismiss after a certain number of trials.”
The prosecutors also argued Juhasz’s reliance on out-of-state case law is misplaced and that no statutory or Ohio case law supports his position.
Anderson’s first trial in May 2003 was declared a mistrial because of “an unsolicited comment” from a witness.
Anderson’s second trial in November 2003 resulted in a conviction and a sentence of 15 years to life in prison, but the 7th District Court of Appeals overturned the conviction in September 2006, citing “cumulative error” in the trial.
A third trial in December 2008 ended with a hung jury; and a fourth attempt in April 2010 ended in a mistrial after a defense lawyer fell asleep in the courtroom during jury selection.
After almost two full days of deliberations, the most recent trial in August 2010 ended with a hung jury.
After that jury deadlocked, Doherty said “a significant number” of jurors expressed a strong belief in Anderson’s guilt and that she favored retrying Anderson.