TOLEDO, Ohio — Eric Misch, a Toledo man convicted of a 1992 murder, has been granted a new trial.
At an August hearing, Judge Gary Cook heard testimony that key pieces of evidence were not turned over to Misch’s defense team by Toledo police before his 1993 trial.
In a decision published Wednesday afternoon, Judge Cook approved his motion for a new trial. A pretrial date of June 17 has been set.
Misch and four other men – Louie Costilla, Joseph Rickard, Larry Vasquez, and Mel Vasquez – were convicted in the death of Vernon Huggins, who was beaten to death in Wilson Park on Aug. 4, 1992.
Misch was paroled on April 23, 2020, after spending more than 25 years in prison. The other men have also been paroled. All five men claim they are innocent.
During trials, prosecutors and witnesses said the five men were part of a Toledo gang known as The Bishops that would target black men and other minorities, beating up or assaulting them. Prosecutors said at Misch’s trial that Misch stopped Huggins and asked him something before Costilla, Rickard, and Larry and Mel Vasquez attacked him from behind.
Misch, who was 16 at the time, initially confessed to detectives, but later recanted and insisted he had nothing to do with the crime. The initial confession was not taped, and Misch testified that he was given details of the murder and was told other members of the gang had implicated him in the killing. He also has said detectives told him that if he did not admit to being involved, they would have him locked up until he was 50 years old. He said fear led him to make a statement and admit involvement.
Beginning in 2011, the Wrongful Conviction Project began reviewing Misch’s case and submitted multiple record requests to the Toledo Police Department. Over the next seven years, five requests were submitted, until finally in 2018, more than 100 pages of previously undisclosed records were provided to Misch’s attorney.
In addition, other evidence was discovered by Jay Gast, an investigator for the prosecutor’s office, and turned over to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation on Nov. 10, 2020. BCI provided that evidence to Misch’s team in October 2021.
Previously undisclosed evidence included interviews with Huggins’ family members, who said Huggins was confronted by members of his girlfriend’s family hours before his death. A tipster told police that Huggins broke into his girlfriend’s home in the days before his murder, stole money and threatened his girlfriend and mother.
One of the members of Huggins' girlfriend's family who confronted Huggins was reportedly carrying a broken-off, wooden table leg. An autopsy indicated Huggins was beaten to death with a blunt object. Huggins hid in his family’s home and was seen alive hours after prosecutors said the Bishops killed him.
None of this information was turned over to Misch’s attorney, Paul Geller, or even 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.
In his decision, Judge Cook wrote: “Every citizen of Ohio and the United States is entitled to due process of law. Defendant was denied such due process when the State of Ohio suppressed material, exculpatory evidence prior to his trial in violation of Brady v. Maryland and its progeny. Defendant is therefore entitled to a new trial….The court reiterates: This opinion does not serve as an exoneration. Should the state elect to proceed, defendant will again stand trial for the murder of Vernon Huggins.”