Monday, January 14, 2019
By ED RUNYAN
runyan@vindy.com
WARREN
Enough potential jurors were identified Monday in the Claudia Hoerig aggravated murder case to allow for general jury selection this afternoon, making it likely opening statements and testimony will begin early Wednesday.
It also means the trial probably won’t have to be moved outside of Trumbull County.
Jurors are expected board a bus late today or early Wednesday to view the Newton Falls home where Hoerig is accused of killing her husband, Maj. Karl Hoerig, March 12, 2007.
She is accused of fleeing to her native Brazil after her husband’s death and remaining there 11 years until almost exactly one year ago, when the Brazilian government allowed U.S. officials to fly her back to Ohio.
After a full day of questioning potential jurors Monday about what they know about the case from news reports, 39 of the original 75 potential jurors are still available for general jury selection this afternoon, Twelve jurors and four alternates will decide the case.
About two-thirds of potential jurors interviewed Monday knew about the case because of news coverage. But most were allowed to remain as potential jurors after agreeing they could “set aside” the coverage and determine Hoerig’s guilt or innocence based only on testimony from the witness stand.
Four of the 15 potential jurors interviewed Monday morning were dismissed because of pretrial publicity they viewed and their atitudes about the publicity. Others were dismissed later in the day.
If convicted, Hoerig, 54, could get life in prison without the possibility of parole or life in prison with parole eligibility after 20, 25 or 30 years.
Many of the potential jurors who were asked about pretrial publicity said they knew this is the case involving a woman accused of killing her husband and fleeing to her native country. Many recalled that U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland tried to have her brought back to face trial.
Of the 75 original potential jurors, six were dismissed for personal reasons, and about 50 raised their hand when asked if they knew something about the case from news coverage. Those were the ones questioned Monday.
The first person questioned said she reads newspapers and watches television news and felt the public had paid “so much attention” to the case.
She said she could set aside what she knew for the trial but later told Dennis Watkins, Trumbull County prosecutor, she would “have a hard time” setting aside what she heard, read or thought. She was dismissed.
By contrast, two men said they only learned about the case because their mothers told them over the last two days about it.
“Oh, you’re going for that case of the woman who killed her husband,” the first man said his mother told him. He was allowed to remain.
Another man said his family gets two newspapers, but he had only read one article on Friday about the case. He remained a potential juror.
Two potential jurors said they were aware that Hoerig had left the United States and gone back to Brazil after her husband’s murder. One said it “raises concern” to know that. Another said knowing that “caused suspicion,” but both men were allowed to remain in the potential jury pool.
In the second stage of jury selection today, jurors will be asked questions as a group and the attorneys are able to dismiss a specific number of jurors “without cause,” meaning without having to give a reason.
Prosecutors say Karl Hoerig was planning to leave Claudia Hoerig the day he died and told a fellow pilot he expected things to go badly when he told her.
Claudia Hoerig told investigators who interviewed her the day she returned to the United States that Karl Hoerig was abusive.