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Girts case continues to haunt family, courts; new trial possible
By Denise Dick
CLEVELAND
In court in 2014, when Robert Girts admitted poisoning Bettianne Jones’ sister-in-law in 1992, Jones thought the case finally was over.
It isn’t.
In 2014, Girts, an embalmer and a Poland native, pleaded guilty in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court and was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and insurance fraud in the 1992 death of Diane Jones Girts, his third wife. He told the court he put cyanide in a salt shaker, knowing she would use it. The couple had lived in a Cleveland suburb.
The judge sentenced him to an indefinite prison term of six to 30 years, giving him credit for about 15 years he’s already served. In August 2014, the Ohio Parole Board denied him parole, saying he wouldn’t be eligible again for 10 years.
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.
The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office appealed that decision to the Ohio Supreme Court, which last week declined to hear the case, leaving the appeals-court ruling intact.
“I’m speechless,” said Jones, whose late husband, Bettianne Barry, was Diane’s brother. “I just can’t believe this.”
She’s been following the case, attending every hearing and monitoring court websites regarding its status.
It’s something she plans to continue.
“If he thinks that I/we am going to get tired and give up, he better think again,” Jones said. “I will never stop seeing this through,” the East Palestine woman said. “I don’t care how many years it takes.”
Reanna Karousis, a spokeswoman for the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, said the case is back to its pretrial status, but the office is considering filing a motion for reconsideration with the Ohio Supreme Court.
Without a reconsideration, the parties either would have to negotiate a new plea or Girts could be retried, the spokeswoman said.
Girts was moved in August from the Richland Correctional Institution in Mansfield to the Cuyahoga County Jail.
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.
While free, 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.
Jones said she stays involved in the case because she owes it to Barry and Diane.
“I feel like they can’t move on until this is closed down here – like they’re up in heaven just waiting,” she said.