TOLEDO, Ohio — It has been 30 years since Eric Misch was convicted of participating in the killing of Toledoan Vernon Huggins near Woodward High School.
For two days this week, his defense team argued that he deserves a new trial to prove his innocence. But he will need to wait several more months before he learns if he will get a chance for a new trial.
At the end of the hearing Tuesday, Lucas County Common Pleas Court Gary Cook said he will accept additional written arguments in the case. It could be sooner, but the judge is unlikely to make a decision until December.
After challenging the testimony of five defense witnesses on Monday, prosecutors got a chance to call its witnesses on Tuesday.
Testimony by retired Toledo detectives James Anderson and Tom Ross was largely used to attempt to poke a hole in the defense's assertion that recently discovered documents cost Misch a chance at a fair trial.
After a decade's-worth of public record requests to the Toledo police department and the prosecutor's office, the Wrongful Conviction Project, which is representing Misch, received several previously unknown documents in 2021. Those documents included several CrimeStopper tips that name several alternative suspects.
Misch and four other members of a group known as The Bishops were convicted of beating Huggins to death during a robbery on Aug. 4, 1992. Previous testimony said Misch stopped Huggins by asking for a cigarette, before his friends jumped the man and beat him.
In the days after the murder, several tips came in, including CrimeStopper tips that said Huggins was killed by "dope boys," relatives of his girlfriend, and a serial killer. In addition, a bottle that was turned over to the Wrongful Conviction Project was tested and found to have the DNA of a known felon. It was found next to Huggins' body.
Assistant prosecutor Evy Jarrett walked Ross through several CrimeStopper tips that he had investigated. He indicated that police had a 10-day window to follow up and investigate the claims. If the calls were found without merit, the tips were often not turned over to prosecutors - or defense attorneys - Ross said.
The initial detective on the case was Gary Burks, before Detective Robert Leiter took over roughly a month after the murder. Anderson assisted him with the investigation. Leiter died in 2020, and during his testimony on Tuesday, Anderson had little memory of the investigation or his interaction with Misch.
But during the initial trial, testimony stated that detectives believed Misch was involved and picked him up at his home, not initially telling him that he was a suspect. During the next three hours, they questioned him, took him to Wilson Park, where the murder happened, and finally took a 20-minute, recorded statement from him.
Defense attorneys contend that Misch was fed information about the murder, then was convinced that if he gave a statement, he'd be off the hook for the murder. In his recorded statement, he said he was involved in the incident but did not participate in the beating. The defense believes that was a false confession.
At one point, defense attorney Katherine Sato asked Anderson about the taped statement. The defense believes the recording was stopped for some reason, then restarted.
"How many times was the recording started and stopped?" Sato asked.
"It was started once and stopped once," Anderson replied.
She then approached the witness stand and played portions of the statement twice and Anderson admitted that it sounded as if the recording was stopped, then restarted.
Both sides will now be allowed to submit written arguments, with the sides then allowed to respond to those arguments.
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