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Case of embalmer twice convicted of killing wife starts anew
By Denise Dick
CLEVELAND
It’s back to the beginning in the legal case of Robert Girts, a Poland native who has twice been convicted of killing his third wife.
“It’s just frustrating,” said Bettianne Jones, whose sister-in-law Diane Girts, died in 1992 of cyanide poisoning. “Every time we think we have it over, something else happens.”
In January 2014, Girts, 62, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and insurance fraud in Diane’s death.
“I put cyanide in the salt shaker before I left for Chicago, knowing she would use the salt,” Girts told the court at the time of his plea.
A Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court judge sentenced Girts to an indefinite term of six to 30 years in prison and gave him credit for time served. In August 2014, the Ohio Parole Board decided that he would serve at least 10 more years before being eligible for parole.
Jones thought the long ordeal was over.
Girts twice had been convicted of aggravated murder in Diane’s death, but those convictions were overturned. In 2008, Girts was released from prison after serving more than 15 years, awaiting a third trial.
He pleaded to the manslaughter charge in 2014 instead.
Girts, however, appealed, and the 8th District Court of Appeals vacated both the plea and sentence, saying that Girts was sentenced under 2014 sentencing rules rather than those in effect at the time of the crime.
The maximum prison term Girts could have received under the old guidelines was 11 years.
Both Girts’ attorneys and prosecutors appealed. Both wanted to retain the plea although Girts’ attorneys objected to the sentence.
The Ohio Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
“We’re back to square one,” said Joe Frolik, a spokesman for the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s office.
Dec. 11 had been set for a new sentencing, but since the plea was also vacated, that won’t happen. A pretrial hearing may be conducted that day instead.
Girts could plead again or the case could be set for trial.
“We’re just kind of waiting to see what direction they’ll go in,” Jones said. “Is he going to enter another plea? It’s just been one thing after another after another.”
It’s difficult to understand, she said. She read a recent newspaper article about a woman peddling Oxycontin who was sentenced to 61 years in prison.
“And then you turn around and this man [Girts] killed somebody — she’s no longer here — and he’s been sentenced to 25, 30 years,” Jones said. “It is very frustrating. You don’t know what to expect next.”
Jones has been at every court hearing in the long-running case. She’s the closest family member left. Her late husband, Barry, was Diane’s brother.
Between being released from prison in 2008 and going back in 2014, Girts, a former embalmer, married a fourth time. That woman, according to court documents, also 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 was not charged.
Girts’ first wife, Terrie, also died young, although her death wasn’t linked to poison, and no charges were filed. He and his second wife divorced.