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Noling Eyes New Trial In 1990 Atwater Murders
By Marci Piltz
Record-Courier staff writer
February 1, 2007
Nearly 11 years ago, Tyrone Noling stood in Portage County Common Pleas Court and was sentenced to death for the April 1990 murders of Bearnhardt and Cora Hartig.
On Wednesday, Noling, who has claimed innocence since his conviction, again appeared in Portage County Common Pleas Court, this time hoping for a decision that like a December decision by the Ohio Supreme Court that recently granted two other convicted Portage County murderers new trials.
Noling, now 33, has spent more than 10 years in prison following his 1996 conviction and sentencing. He appeared in court with Kelly Culshaw and Jennifer Prillo of the Ohio Public Defender's Office and private attorney Jim Jenkins.
The hearing, presided over by Judge John Enlow, was a second post-conviction relief hearing, which if granted, could get Noling ordered a new trial, which happened recently for previously convicted murderers Randy Resh and Robert Gondor.
"The only difference in the Resh and Gondor case and this one is that the errors are more egregious," said Culshaw when first addressing the court.
The bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Hartig were found on the kitchen floor of their Atwater home by a neighbor's son on April 5, 1990. The man had entered the home after noticing a tractor left parked outside for several days, something he told investigators in 1990 Bearnhardt Hartig would never do.
Noling was not charged with the crime until nearly five years later, after a Portage County Sheriff's Office interview in 1992 with another suspect re-opened the cold investigation.
Both the Hartigs had been shot several times with a .25-caliber automatic handgun, a weapon that investigators have never recovered.
Prosecutors alleged the murders were the result of a botched robbery, during which Bearnhardt Hartig may have attempted to stop then 18-year-old Noling and his alleged accomplice, Gary St. Clair.
St. Clair pleaded guilty to the slayings in 1993 and was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. Since then, he has claimed that his pleading was the result of threats and coercion on the part of investigators and detectives from the Portage County Sheriff's Office and Portage County Prosecutor's Office.
During their arguments Wednesday, Culshaw and Prillo told Enlow that St. Clair, as well as two other alleged accomplices, Joey Dalesandro and Butch Wolcott, have withdrawn their confessions and claimed they were coerced into confessing.
The defense attorneys also argued that the original trial attorneys for Noling failed to present evidence to the jury which could have given them reasonable doubt that Noling was responsible for the murder, that many witnesses called to the stand gave inconsistent testimony and had questionable credibility.
"There was a belief at one time that the perpetrator of this crime knew the Hartigs, and that Cora and Bearnhardt had both been sitting at the kitchen table when they were shot," Culshaw stated. "There also was evidence that the shooter also had been seated at the table at the time of the shooting."
Culshaw also noted that despite Noling's confession to two robberies in Alliance around the same time as the Hartig murders -- both involving a .25-caliber handgun -- that gun eventually was recovered and determined not to be the murder weapon.
She also pointed out that two insurance agents who knew the Hartigs, one of whom allegedly was in default on a loan made to him by them, could have been viable suspects.
"A neighbor said a man in his 30s with a dark blue car had been seen leaving the Hartig residence around the time of the murder," Culshaw said. "That car matches one of the insurance agents, but the jury never heard that."
Assistant Prosecutor Pam Holder responded to Enlow by pointing out that a first post-conviction relief hearing held in the same court rejected Noling's claims, and argued that nothing new was being presented at Wednesday's hearing.
"These are the same issues raised at the first PCR hearing -- ineffective assistance of council, Brady issues. It sounded very familiar to what was argued here today," Holder said. "The court has had ample time to review all those issues and already has found no merit to them."
Holder also pointed out that the Ohio Supreme Court justice who issued a ruling on the prosecutor's office procedure in 1996 to hold open file discovery was "unusual but was commended" and no errors were found on the part of the prosecution or the discovery process.
Culshaw and Prillo closed by saying that while they agree there are similarities in the specific errors they are addressing, the facts assigned to those errors -- unused witness statements, notes from law enforcement and other information obtained through a public records request made by a media outlet last year -- have now given the court new facts to consider.
Following the hour and a half long proceeding, Enlow told attorneys for both sides he would consider their arguments and enter a written opinion. It is unknown how long it will take for Enlow to make that decision.
E-mail: mpiltz@recordpub.com
Phone: (330) 296-9657
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