Austintown murder case from 2002 resolved

March 14, 2017 at 12:05a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

After almost 15 years, Christopher Anderson had nothing to say just before he was sentenced Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for the 2002 death of an Austintown woman.

Anderson, 49, who was tried five times for the death of 22-year-old Amber Zurcher in June 2002 and has been in jail since two months after her death, declined to speak when asked by Judge Anthony D’Apolito. He then was sentenced to 14 years, after earlier pleading guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated burglary.

But the sentence is for time served, a deal worked out by prosecutors and defense attorney John Juhasz and approved by Zurcher’s family.

Anderson was expected to be released after he is processed from the county jail and must report to the Adult Parole Authority today to begin serving his five years on parole, the maximum amount he can serve.

Judge D’Apolito stressed that he agreed to the sentence only after Zurcher’s mother, Diane Whiteman, told him she approved of the plea bargain, or he would have set a date for trial No. 6.

“If they had not been in agreement, I would not have been in agreement either,” Judge D’Apolito said.

Zurcher was found by her mother June 3, 2002, strangled in her Compass West apartment. Anderson was arrested Aug. 22, 2002, after his DNA matched DNA found at the crime scene. The DNA of another unidentified man also was found at the crime scene, Juhasz said Monday.

Anderson was among people who had partied at Zurcher’s apartment hours before she was found. During subsequent legal proceedings, prosecutors presented DNA samples connecting Anderson to Zurcher – evidence found under the victim’s fingernails and a bite wound on her left breast.

Anderson’s legal counsel, however, countered in documents that there was no evidence to show that Anderson murdered the victim or explaining how he gained entrance to her apartment, which was locked from the inside with no signs of forced entry.

Whiteman told the judge she still remembers “like it was yesterday” when Zurcher dropped her then-3-year-old son off to spend the night with her the night before she was found.

“I never thought I wouldn’t see her alive again,” Whiteman said.

She said she sat through the trials and was dismayed as Anderson “told lie after lie.” Zurcher was her only child, Whiteman said.

“There are no words to describe the loss of your child, your only child,” Whiteman said.

Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa read a statement by Zurcher’s grandmother, Judy Weber, who said Zurcher was a good mother who was always in touch with her grandmother.

“I miss all the phone calls and I-love-yous,” Weber said in her statement.

Cantalamessa said prosecutors decided to end the case now because if the case had gone to trial again and the result was a hung jury, they were unsure if Anderson would have been released or the charges dismissed because there is a new judge on the case now.

A mistrial was declared after his first trial in May 2003 because of a remark by a witness that was deemed “unsolicited testimony.”

He was convicted in November 2003 and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison, but the conviction was overturned by the 7th District Court of Appeals in 2006 for “cumulative error.”

In December 2008, a hung jury was declared, although prosecutors said jurors had voted 11-1 for conviction.

In April 2010, a mistrial was declared after one of Anderson’s lawyers fell asleep during jury selection; and in August 2010, a jury could not reach a verdict after two full days of deliberations.

Three judges have been responsible for the case since Anderson was arrested. The newest judge, Judge D’Apolito, said he was not sure if the plea bargain was justice, but he hoped it could at least lead to healing because Zurcher’s family will not have to endure reliving the case anymore.

“If nothing else, if I can’t give justice today, I can give closure,” Judge D’Apolito said.

“Only Mr. Anderson knows what happened that night,” Judge D’Apolito added. “I do this more for them [Zurcher’s family] than I do for you.”