A lawyer for Ryan Widmer says she needs more time to file an appeal of his murder conviction in the 2008 drowning of his wife, Sarah, because she hasn’t received a complete transcript of his third trial and pre-trial hearings.
The Enquirer’s Janice Morse has the details:
Attorney Michele Berry filed a motion Friday asking the Middletown-based Ohio 12th District Court of Appeals to extend its deadline for the appeal to 90 days after the complete record is ready.
“That date is currently unknown because the court reporter, who has already diligently prepared thousands of pages worth of transcripts, is still working to prepare thousands of additional pages of transcripts,” Berry wrote.
She noted that the partial third trial transcript already exceeds 3,000 pages – and there are likely to be “1,000 or more additional pages.”
Further, Berry is also reviewing thousands of other pages of transcripts from Widmer’s two previous trials in Warren County Common Pleas Court. His 2009 conviction was set aside because of jury misconduct and a 2010 trial ended with a hung jury.
“This lengthy extension is necessary as this is a highly unusual case that is particularly time consuming and involves an extraordinarily voluminous record,” she wrote.
Widmer, 30, who last lived in Mason, was convicted in his third trial Feb. 15. He protests his innocence but prosecutors say they are convinced that Widmer forcibly drowned his wife of four months in their Hamilton Township bathroom. Prosecutors presented a bathtub as evidence, but some jurors thought Sarah Widmer may have been drowned in the toilet.
A native of Colerain Township, Widmer is serving 15 years to life in Warren Correctional Institution, an Ohio prison near Lebanon.
Posted in: Crime, News, Widmer Trial |
