HOERIG TRIAL | Prosecution rests its case against Claudia Hoerig

2:15 p.m.

WARREN

Prosecutors have rested their case in the Claudia Hoerig aggravated murder trial after a brief cross examination of Dr. Joseph Felo of the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's office and testimony from two U.S. Air Force pilots who flew with and were friends of Karl Hoerig.

Claudia Hoerig is accused of killing Karl Hoerig, her husband, by shooting him three times at the home in Newton Falls March 12, 2007.

The case will resume Tuesday afternoon. The courthouse will be closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, and Judge Andrew Logan, who is presiding over Claudia's case, will be busy Tuesday morning handling about 40 other cases on his docket.

In earlier testimony today, Dr. Felo testified about the "steep" angle of a gunshot that entered Karl's back and traveled upward toward his shoulder area. The wound was so steep that it traveled nearly parallel with the angle of his back, Dr. Felo said.

During cross examination, Dennis Watkins, Trumbull County prosecutor, sat on a step near the witness stand where Dr. Dr. Felo was seated and asked Dr. Felo to demonstrate the possible position of the person who shot Karl Hoerig in that steep-angled gunshot.

Dr. Felo stood behind Watkins and pushed down on the prosecutor's shoulders, showing that it would have been possible for a shot to have had that trajectory if someone was standing directly behind him and fired into his back along the line of his back

12:50 p.m.

WARREN

Forensic pathologist Dr. Joseph Felo of the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner' Office began his testimony before lunch today in the Claudia Hoerig aggravated murder trial, talking about the "steep" angle of one gunshot wound in the body of Claudia's husband, Karll. She is accused of killing him in 2007.

He also testified that he believes the two other gunshot wounds found in Karl's body were fired into him from near the bottom of the stairs in the Hoerig's Newton Falls home. That apparently contradicts statements Claudia Hoerig made when she was returned to the United States Jan. 17, 2018, from her native Brazil. She gave a 2 1/2 hour videotaped interview to investigators that day.

Dr. Felo reviewed the autopsy report written by Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk, who was Trumbull County coroner until he died in April 2018.

A possibly fatal gunshot wound that entered Karl's back and nearly exited his chest suggests that he was laying on his chest when the shot was fired, Felo said under questioning by Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins. That wound occurred from being "shot while on the floor," Dr Felo said.

There also was no evidence of bruising on Karl's body, suggesting that Karl did not fall down the steps, Dr. Felo said. Claudia told an investigator during her videotaped interview that the first shot she fired at her husband was when he was three steps from the top of the stairs and that she thinks it killed him.

Dr. Felo said the presence of "stippling" on the wound on the right side of of Karl's face indicates the barrel of the gun that shot him was 12 inches to 24 inches away when it was fired. Dr. Felo said he believes the gunshot wound to Karl's head was fired by someone on the floor at the bottom of the steps, where Karl's body was found three days later.

Claudia Hoerig's defense team objected multiple times to the testimony, but Judge Andrew Logan overruled the objections.

Defense attorneys will get to cross examine Dr. Felo when the trial resumes at 1:15 p.m.

11:12 a.m.

WARREN — There was an error in the 2-1/2-hour interview of Claudia Hoerig that jurors heard on Thursday, a witness testified today.

Detective Mike Yannucci of the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office testified this morning in Hoerig's aggravated murder trial that Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins notified him Thursday night something was missing from the recording.

Yannucci and an investigator with the prosecutor's office checked into it and discovered that a 68-second portion of the recording were missing, apparently because of a technical issue with the recording not noticed earlier. Yannucci and the investigator provided the missing section and played it for jurors this morning. It was a section in which Hoerig was asked whether she was surprised that the Brazilian government had allowed her to be sent back to the United States for trial.

She seemed to agree that she was surprised, saying, "I want to pay for my crime in Brazil because I want to be near my husband." She was referring to the man she married in Brazil sometime in 2007 after returning to her native country after the death of her second husband, Karl, in their home in Newton Falls.

She also told Yannucci the penalty for murder in Brazil is 18 to 30 years.

In Ohio, the penalty for the aggravated murder charge she faces is up to life in prison without parole eligibility.

Apparently the mistake and discussion of how to fix it were the reasons why the trial began nearly an hour late this morning.

9:58 a.m.

WARREN — Detective Mike Yannucci of the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office is resuming his testimony this morning in the Claudia Hoerig aggravated murder trial after a 2-1/2-hour video of his interview with Claudia was played Thursday.

He is just taking the stand after a delay of about 45 minutes in getting started today.

In the video, Claudia, now 54, spoke nearly non-stop in detailing the specifics of killing her husband, Karl, March 12, 2007; the dysfunction of their relationship; her life in Brazil after fleeing from Trumbull County; why she sent money from her bank account to family members in Brazil; multiple attempts at suicide here and in Brazil; and the ways her family talked her out of suicide.

But when Yannucci and Bill Boldin of the U.S. Marshal’s Service asked her questions, like why she considered buying a second gun two days before shooting her husband, she said she had trouble remembering.

She also couldn’t remember if she fired a shot at close range at Karl’s head. Prosecutors have said Karl was hit with a shot from 12-to-24-inches away, information a medical examiner is expected to discuss at the trial.

Yannucci testified only briefly about his involvement in the case Thursday before the video was played.

Jurors were given a transcript produced by a court reporter of the interview, apparently because it was difficult at times to understand the Brazilian-born Claudia and because of some sound-quality issues.

Defense attorneys objected to allowing jurors to have the transcript while the video was played, saying it contained a number of significant inaccuracies.

The filing gave several examples where the court reporter indicated sections were “inaudable,” but the filing inserts words that the defense thinks Claudia actually said.