HOERIG TRIAL | Jurors view Claudia Hoerig's videotaped interview

5:20 p.m.

WARREN

After jurors watched a 2 1/2-hour videotaped interview of Claudia Hoerig talking to investigators this afternoon in her aggravated murder trial, the trial adjourned at 5:20 p.m. and will resume tomorrow morning.

It was the second day of testimony in her trial and included contentious questioning of a former detective and a reconstructionist explaining the science he used to locate Claudia Hoerig’s position while shooting at her husband, Karl, March 12, 2007, in their Newton Falls home.

Prosecutors have said they plan to show that Claudia "ambushed" her husband as he sat at the bottom of the stairs putting on his shoes. Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins said prosecutors would show that the story she told investigators during that interview were false.

In the interview, she said she shot Karl from a distance of no more than 6 feet away as he descended the stairs. But that contradicted earlier testimony from law enforcement indicating that there was no blood at the top of the stairs.

12:30 p.m.

WARREN

Testimony before lunch today in the Claudia Hoerig aggravated murder trial was a lesson in math and science as Trooper Christopher Jester of the Ohio State Highway Patrol testified about the computerized mapping he performed of the Hoerig home to suggest the location of Claudia Hoerig when she shot her husband to death in 2007.

One of her defense lawyers admitted to jurors Wednesday in opening statements that Claudia shot and killed her husband, Karl, March 12, 2007, but he denied she is guilty of aggravated murder.

The trooper is a reconstructionist, meaning he takes measurements and uses science and math at automobile crash scenes to arrive at conclusions as to how the accident happened.

Jester said he used several computer programs and devices in 2018 that allowed him to create three-dimensional images of the death scene showing the location of Karl Hoerig's body in relation to two bullet holes made in the floor near his body.

Using lasers and a rod, in addition to the computer software and photographs of the original crime scene, he was able to determine that the shooter was either on the stairway landing or on the second step from the bottom when he or she fired the shots that hit the floor.

Karl Hoerig's body was found at the bottom of the stairs between the first and second floors of the home three days after he had been killed.

It's unclear how prosecutors plan to use that information to try to prove that Claudia Hoerig "ambushed" her husband in a premeditated way,as Prosecutor Dennis Watkins alleged in his opening statement Wednesday.

David Rouzzo, one of Claudia Hoerig's defense attorneys, raised a number of questions about how reliable Jester's conclusions are. Since his conclusions are based on the location of the two bullet holes in the floor, what would happen if the holes had been altered, Rouzzo asked.

It could have an effect, but based on photos taken at the time of the killing, Jester didn't think the holes had been altered, he said.

Rouzzo also wanted to know how Jester could be sure no significant changes had been made to the house since 2007. The home had been sold multiple times sine 2007, Rouzzo suggested.

Jester said he doesn't know how many people have owned the home.

10:44 a.m.

This morning's testimony from former detective Peter Pizzulo in the case turned volatile when defense attorney David Rouzzo questioned him about the felony criminal conviction that ended Pizzulo's law-enforcement career.

Rouzzo confirmed from Pizzulo he was lead detective in the Hoerig case and worked with several other investigators, then asked whether Pizzulo told the other detectives he was "stealing money from a charity" at the time of the investigation.

That prompted an objection from prosecutors, who then talked privately with Judge Andrew Logan and defense counsel as to whether the question was proper. Voices got loud, and the judge had to ask the attorneys to "calm down" at one point.

The judge did not order the question stricken from the record, and Pizzulo explained he did not realize in 2007 that his actions with a nonprofit organization he co-founded were illegal.

In September 2009, Pizzulo was ordered to pay back $8,500 he stole from the Ohio Narcotics Officers Association, which he and another employee of the sheriff's office founded, according to Vindicator files. He pleaded guilty to felony grand theft and is prohibited from ever working again in law enforcement.

Pizzulo and the other man resigned their jobs with the sheriff's office after then-Sheriff Thomas Altiere threatened to fire them. Pizzulo was sentenced to 90 days in the Geauga County Jail as part of his five-year probation.

Rouzzo then asked Pizzulo if he had lied while writing a document called an affidavit, but Pizzulo denied it.

8:14 a.m.

WARREN — The second day of testimony begins this morning in the Claudia Hoerig aggravated murder trial with additional testimony from Peter Pizzulo, the lead detective in the case when Hoerig was charged in the 2007 killing of Karl Hoerig.

On Wednesday, Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins told jurors in his opening statement that Karl told Claudia, 54, he was leaving her the day he was killed in their Newton Falls home and didn’t know she owned a gun.

She had purchased it two days earlier, according to testimony on Wednesday.

“This woman shot him three times — two times in the back and once in the head. We will prove she ambushed him,” Watkins said.

Claudia’s attorneys admit she killed her husband, just as she said in an interview with investigators when she was returned to Ohio from her native Brazil one year ago today.

But defense attorney John Cornely of the Ohio Public Defender’s Office said in his opening statement Claudia shot her husband while “enraged” over things he said after telling him she was pregnant.

Cornely said she is not guilty of aggravated murder.

Prosecutors sought and received an indictment from a grand jury charging Claudia with a type of murder that alleges premeditation and a possible prison sentence of life in prison without parole.

But under Ohio law, there are lesser punishments for killing someone without premeditation.

Robin L. Caviness Jr., 39, for instance, was sentenced to 25 years in prison earlier this month in Trumbull County Common Pleas court after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter and other charges in the shooting death of Clayton Bender last June in Niles.

Caviness was looking at 15 years to life in prison if he would have been convicted on his original murder charge, which did not allege premeditation.