CINCINNATI — As a week's worth of testimony drew to a close on Friday, Robert Garrett could only ask himself why he had to relive some of his life's most painful memories.
"Why do they have to do this to me and my family?" he said. "Ever (see) the movie 'Groundhog Day?' Everything continues, continues, continues and starts over and continues and starts over."
This is hardly the first time Garrett and his family have had to follow court proceedings in the murder case of his then 10-year-old daughter Amber Garrett in 1991.
Three days after she went missing, police found her body in an overgrown area off the side of the road near the Ohio–Indiana border. Garrett had several stab wounds and blunt-force trauma to the head.
His defense argues new, previously suppressed evidence—including Harrison Police and FBI records from the time of the investigation—never made it to his original defense team and may have persuaded the jury not to convict.
— Connor Steffen | WCPO 9 News (@ConnorSteffenTV) October 17, 2024
They’re asking a judge to grant Wogenstahl a new trial.
While a Hamilton County jury convicted Jeffrey Wogenstahl two years later for Amber's murder, his current defense team says Wogenstahl's "constitutional rights were violated" during the course of the trial.
"I've never seen a case where there's so much (suppressed) Brady evidence," said Sarah Gelsomino, Wogenstahl's defense attorney. "The police and the prosecutors in this case suppressed an incredible amount of evidence."
Brady evidence is evidence that is favorable to the defense in a criminal case.
"Jeff was the next one in this state scheduled to be executed. He was seven months away," Gelsomino said. "We can't be executing people when we're not 100% certain that they absolutely committed that crime, right?"
Wogenstahl's attorneys are now asking Judge Christian Jenkins to vacate the original conviction and grant him a new trial.
It's why, for the last four days, about a dozen witnesses have testified in an evidentiary hearing, which will end with Jenkins ruling in the post-conviction petition.
During the course of this week's hearing, prosecuting attorney Phil Cummings stated how laws about the discovery process have changed since the time of the trial, saying lists of eliminated suspects, dead-end leads and more were not something that was required to be turned over in Ohio 30 years ago.
"If Wogenstahl didn't do this, then he has to be the unluckiest S.O.B. in history — to be seen by multiple witnesses at all the relevant crime scenes in the exact time frame when this had to have occurred," Cummings said during Tuesday's hearing.
Cummings said the new evidence the defense presented is "minor," arguing that it wouldn't change the original conviction.
"Every court, every state, every federal court that looked at Wogenstahl's direct appeal upheld the conviction, and they always would say the same thing, 'overwhelming evidence,'" Cummings said. "And I want to stop here for a second and note, this is (not just) the prosecutor saying overwhelming evidence."
WCPO 9 News has reached out to the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office for comment but has yet to hear back.
Wogenstahl's defense attorneys claim investigative files from the time of Garrett's murder were never shared with his original defense attorneys, including Harrison Police records, FBI records and Hamilton County Coroner's Lab records.
"So not only has Jeff been suffering for decades as a result of this, but now the victim's family has to come back and relive all of this too," Gelsomino said. "The ripple effects of wrongful convictions are so intense, they are so serious, and they get right to the core of the public's trust in our criminal legal system."
Court proceedings are tentatively slated to continue on Nov. 15, with the defense calling on two more witnesses to testify before closing arguments.
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