Attorneys for Ryan Widmer filed a notice of appeal late Wednesday, just days after a judge denied his request for a fourth trial.
Attorney Lindsey Gutierrez served a notice that an appeal of Widmer’s Feb. 15 murder conviction in Warren County Common Pleas Court will be filed in the 12th District Court of Appeals.
Widmer, 30, of Mason is serving 15 years to life in prison for the 2008 drowning death of his wife, Sarah Widmer, at their Hamilton Township home.
Gutierrez said that it would take another month for a court reporter to finish a 3,000-page trial transcript and two months after that for an appeal brief to be filed, as reported by Janice Morse.
Legal experts say defense attorneys will have to meet a high legal standard in their appeal to Ohio’s 12th District Court of Appeals.
“Statistically, they give less reversals than any other court of appeals, however if they turn this down and it’s then successfully taken before the Ohio Supreme Court, it’s a whole other ballgame then,” said Cincinnati attorney Mark Krumbein, who’s been following all three trials.
Defense lawyers had argued for a new trial on claims that a juror disobeyed the judge’s warnings not to discuss the case during the trial. They said Widmer qualified for an acquittal because the evidence wasn’t sufficient to convict him of murder.
Warren County Common Pleas Judge Neal Bronson denied those requests on Friday.
Widmer has been tried three times for the murder of his wife. His first trial, in 2009, ended with a conviction but was thrown out because of jury misconduct. His 2010 trial ended with a hung jury.
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