The murder victim’s father talks about an emotional week in which the convicted man asks for a new trial

CINCINNATI – As a week’s worth of testimony came to a close Friday, Robert Garrett could only wonder why he had to relive some of the most painful memories of his life.

“Why do they have to do this to me and my family?” he said. “Have you ever seen the movie ‘Groundhog Day’?” Everything goes on, goes on, goes on and starts again and goes on and starts again.”

This isn’t the first time Garrett and his family have faced legal proceedings in the 1991 murder case of his then 10-year-old daughter Amber Garrett.

Three days after she went missing, police found her body in an overgrown area on the side of the road near the Ohio-Indiana border. Garrett suffered several stab wounds and blunt force trauma to the head.

While a Hamilton County jury convicted Jeffrey Wogenstahl of Amber’s murder two years later, his current defense team says Wogenstahl’s “constitutional rights were violated” during the trial.

“I’ve never seen a case where there is so much (suppressed) Brady evidence,” said Sarah Gelsomino, Wogenstahl’s attorney. “Police and prosecutors have withheld an incredible amount of evidence in this case.”

Brady evidence is evidence that is favorable to the defense in a criminal case.

“Jeff was the next in this state to be executed. It would take another seven months,” Gelsomino said. “We can’t execute people if we’re not 100% sure that they absolutely committed that crime, right?”

Wogenstahl’s lawyers are now asking Judge Christian Jenkins to vacate the original conviction and grant him a new trial.

That’s why over the past four days, about a dozen witnesses have testified at an evidentiary hearing that will end with Jenkins’ ruling in the post-conviction petition.

During the course of this week’s hearing, prosecutor Phil Cummings explained how the laws governing the discovery process have changed since the time of the trial, saying that lists of eliminated suspects, dead-end leads and more were not something that needed to be handed over. in Ohio 30 years ago.

“If Wogenstahl didn’t do this, he must be the unluckiest SOB in history — to be seen by multiple witnesses at all relevant crime scenes in the exact time frame this should have happened,” Cummings said during Tuesday’s hearing. .

New trial requested in 30-year-old Cincinnati murder case

Cummings said the new evidence the defense presented is “minor,” arguing it would not change the original conviction.

“Every court, every state, every federal court that looked at Wogenstahl’s direct appeal upheld the conviction, and they always said the same thing: ‘overwhelming evidence,’” Cummings said. “And I want to stop here for a moment and note that 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 not heard back.

Wogenstahl’s attorneys claim that investigative files from the time of Garrett’s murder were never shared with his original attorneys, including Harrison Police records, FBI records and Hamilton County Coroner’s Lab records.

“So not only has Jeff suffered from this for decades, but now the victim’s family has to come back and relive it all again,” Gelsomino said. “The ripple effects of wrongful convictions are so intense, they are so severe, and they go to the heart of the public’s trust in our criminal justice system.”

The court proceedings will tentatively continue on November 15, with the defense calling two more witnesses to testify before closing arguments.