43
Claudia Hoerig appeal, filed late, says there was unsufficient evidence to convict
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Nearly a week late, the main appeal document explaining the errors Claudia Hoerig and her attorney believe were made in her case was filed Wednesday with the 11th District Court of Appeals.
Hoerig, 54, received a 28 years-to-life sentence Feb. 8 after being convicted of shooting her husband, Karl, to death in their Newton Falls home in 2007 and fleeing to her native Brazil.
Hoerig’s attorney, Michael Partlow, received additional time to file after he told the appeals court “serious” allegations were raised with him recently about problems Hoerig had with an investigator with the Ohio Public Defender’s office who worked on the case.
Nothing in the document, however, mentions anything related to the actions of an investigator.
The appeal was filed Wednesday, after the Aug. 15 deadline. A separate Partlow filing asks for forgiveness for the late filing.
The appeal says Hoerig should get a new trial because the jury’s guilty verdict on aggravated murder was not supported by sufficient evidence, the trial judge “repeatedly permitting [prosecutors] to make arguments during opening statements, and ruling against the defense on whether certain evidence should be admitted.” Judge Andrew Logan presided.
After the murder, Hoerig remained free in Brazil nine years before the Brazilian Supreme Court stripped her of her Brazilian citizenship and had her detained in a Brazilian prison. Brazil allowed her to be returned to Ohio on Jan. 17, 2018.
The case received worldwide attention.
On the airplane ride back to the United States, in an interview with detectives and during the trial, Hoerig admitted killing her husband, but said she did it because her husband had sexual hang-ups and treated her like a prostitute. The day she killed Karl, “I lost control of myself,” she testified.
She is serving her sentence at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville.
In the part of the filing called the “Statement Of Facts,” Partlow recited a number of statements Hoerig made about cruel treatment at her husband’s hands that she said led to her having two miscarriages.
The filing says there was insufficient evidence to convict Hoerig of purposely killing her husband because prosecutors “failed to produce any evidence indicating [Hoerig] had acted with “‘prior calculation and design,’” which is required for that conviction.