Prosecutor to appeal decision to vacate Girts’ murder plea, sentence

By Denise Dick

denise_dick@vindy.com

CLEVELAND

The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s office plans to appeal a decision to vacate the involuntary- manslaughter plea and sentence of a former Poland embalmer.

In January 2014, Robert G. Girts, formerly of Poland, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and insurance fraud in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court in the 1992 death of his third wife, Diane Jones Girts, in Parma. He admitted in court to putting cyanide in a salt shaker before he went out of town, knowing that she would use it. He had been charged with aggravated murder.

Girts, who formerly worked as an embalmer at a funeral home, was sentenced to an indefinite prison term of six to 30 years, giving him credit for time served. Last August, the Ohio Parole Board denied him parole, saying he wouldn’t be eligible again for 10 years. He’s housed at the Richland Correctional Institution in Mansfield.

Last month, however, the 8th District Court of Appeals vacated both the plea and sentence and remanded the case to the lower court for trial on the original aggravated-murder charge.

The judges ruled that the lower court sentenced Girts under 2014 sentencing guidelines rather than those in place in 1992 when the crime occurred.

The maximum prison term Girts could have received under the old guidelines was 11 years, not 30 years as in 2014.

Girts already has served about 15 years.

Bettianne Jones of Columbiana, the sister-in-law of the late Diane Jones Girts, remains hopeful.

“I’m just waiting to see what happens with the court system and hoping the right thing will be done,” she said.

Girts’ attorneys filed a motion for reconsideration to the appeals court decision to vacate the plea which the appeals court judges denied last week.

Prosecutors last week wrote in a filing that they don’t oppose Girts’ request to maintain his plea, saying they plan to appeal the court’s decision regarding sentencing application.

Girts previously was convicted twice of aggravated murder in Diane’s death, but both of those verdicts were overturned.

He was released from prison in 2008 while awaiting a third trial on the charge. Girts was released when the state failed to retry him within six months as required by a federal court.

During the intervening years, Girts married a fourth time, and that woman, according to previously filed court documents, was fearful of him. In those documents, prosecutors said they believed Girts used the Internet to look up antifreeze ingestion and had been visiting the woman at work and bringing her coffee. The woman had been feeling ill and vomiting, according to a court motion.

Girts’ first wife, Terrie, also died young, although her death wasn’t linked to poison, and no charges were filed. He and a second wife divorced.