In today’s Morning Briefing, we take an in-depth look at Myers’ case and how we got here, waiting on a judge’s decision on a possible new trial.
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DNA testing a key as Greene County man on death row awaits decision on new trial
Judge Jonathan Hein has listened to the arguments, and now it is up to him whether Myers will be granted a new trial.
• The latest: The hearing ended last week, with lawyers for Myers arguing that he should be granted a new trial because of new DNA testing results.
• The crime: During the early morning hours of Aug. 4, 1988, Maher was found barely alive on the south side of Xenia. She had been strangled, and a railroad spike had been driven through her temple. She died shortly thereafter while being flown to a hospital.
• Outdated science? In an 84-page filing in Greene County Common Pleas Court, lawyers for Myers say that the State of Ohio, which prosecuted the case, relied on “unreliable and faulty forensic science to obtain Myers’ conviction.”
• New evidence: Myers’ attorneys argue that new DNA evidence and expert opinions point to Myers’ innocence in the crime, specifically that Myers’ DNA did not match male DNA that was located on the railroad spike used to kill Maher and on one of rocks used in the attack. The new DNA testing was done in 2021.
• The state’s opposition: Prosecutors argue that no “reasonable factfinder” would have found Myers not guilty or ineligible for the death penalty for several reasons, including the fact that Myers was the last person seen with Maher, had her wallet, confessed to the murder to fellow inmates and had motive to commit the crime.
• What happens next: The judge’s decision on whether Myers will be re-tried might not come for several months.
• Surviving daughter: Sarah Sparkman was 8 months old when Maher, her mother, was killed. Now 36, Sparkman has become the voice for a mother she knows only through pictures and mementos.
- “Regardless of whatever happens, it’s going to be a long road. Definitely one I didn’t think I would be taking after 30 years,” she said.
Background on the case
Myers was placed on death row on March 1, 1996
• That night: Maher had been out drinking with her boyfriend, Glenn Smith, and with Myers, then 23 years old, at two bars. Shortly after 1 a.m., Smith was arrested at one of the bars.
• Officer testimony: A police officer reported that he later saw Myers walking with Maher up Home Avenue in the direction of the railroad tracks. When Myers was arrested, he had both Maher’s and Smith’s wallets in his possession.
• The conviction: Myers was convicted of aggravated murder and aggravated robbery in the death of Maher.
• No remorse: After his sentencing in 1996, Myers’ sister, Freda Chambliss, told the Dayton Daily News Myers has shown no remorse following the sentencing because he did not commit the murder.
• Death row: Nine men from the Dayton area are on Ohio’s Death Row. Here’s what they did.