TOLEDO, Ohio — The Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office has appealed a decision from last month that gave a Toledo man a new trial for a 1992 murder.
In 1993, Eric Misch was convicted, along with Louie Costilla, Joseph Rickard, Larry Vasquez, and Mel Vasquez, of killing Vernon Huggins in Wilson Park on Aug. 4, 1992.
Misch, who was 16 at the time, originally confessed to being involved, but he quickly recanted and has always maintained his innocence. He was paroled on April 23, 2020, but continued his attempts to clear his name with the help of the Wrongful Conviction Project.
Beginning in 2011, his attorneys began submitting requests for records from the Toledo Police Department. WCP attorneys discovered that detectives had compiled several tips that pointed to alternative suspects, including family members of the victim’s girlfriend who confronted Huggins on the night of his murder. Another tipster said Huggins was in a bar with a man later convicted of killing a woman on the same day Huggins was killed.
Those tips were not turned over to Misch’s defense team before his 1993 trial. They weren’t even provided to prosecutors.
BCI conducted DNA testing on multiple items, including a bottle found near Huggins’ body. On March 11, 2022, the lab reported that recovered DNA on the bottle matched that of David Woodson, a man who told a Wrongful Conviction Project investigator that he had never heard of Huggins. However, Huggins’ family said Woodson was a known friend.
Based on this new information, Lucas County Common Pleas Court Judge Gary Cook granted Misch a new trial last month.
Last week, the prosecutor’s office appealed Judge Cook’s decision to the Sixth District Court of Appeals, questioning the importance of the undisclosed evidence. It could take several months for a panel to rule on the appeal. It is also possible that the court could immediately dismiss the state’s motion.
Rickard and Costilla also are trying to get a new trial. A hearing was stayed until the appeal on the Misch case is finalized.
Lucas County has had several claims of innocence cases in recent years, including Misch, Rickard, Costilla, Wayne Brady, Karl Willis, Eric Babos, Danny Brown, Stoney Thompson, Willie Knighten and Arty Richter.
On Tuesday morning, the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office will announce the creation of a conviction integrity unit, which will be responsible for reviewing claims of innocence. Post-conviction appeals can often take years, sometimes decades, causing additional years of imprisonment for someone wrongfully convicted but also years of prosecutors’ resources being tied up in litigation. A CIU can often cut months or years off the process through its own investigations.