Death Row: Inmate argues Ohio lacked jurisdiction in 1991 child murder

More than two decades after the crime, Death Row inmate Jeffrey Wogenstahl is claiming that Ohio didn’t have the right to prosecute him for the death of 10-year-old Amber Garrett because the girl may have been murdered in Indiana — not Ohio.

The Ohio Supreme Court will consider Wogenstahl’s direct appeal on April 4.

A Hamilton County trial court in 1993 sentenced Wogenstahl to death. So far, he has lost all his appeals in state and federal court.

In 1991, Peggy Garrett and her five children lived in Harrison, a small town in southwest Ohio that borders Indiana. Garrett met Wogenstahl in October 1991. In November, her eldest son had been babysitting his siblings while Garrett was out. Wogenstahl tricked the 16-year-old boy into leaving the apartment and Wogenstahl abducted Amber, according to a summary of the case provided by the Ohio Supreme Court.

Witnesses reported seeing a car like Wogenstahl’s in both Ohio and Indiana early that morning, including on the side of Jamison Road in Indiana — near where Indiana State Police found Amber’s body.

At trial, the state theorized that he killed the girl in Indiana, according to Wogenstahl. His latest appeal hinges on a 2004 decision from the state Supreme Court that ruled that Ohio did not have jurisdiction over the murders of two college students in Pennsylvania, though the court did uphold the kidnapping convictions.

Hamilton County prosecutors argue that while Amber’s body was found in Indiana, the murder location was never pinpointed. State law says when it’s unclear which jurisdiction a crime occurred, it is presumed to have taken place in Ohio, the prosecutor noted.

website dedicated to Wogenstahl's alleged innocence argues that the case against him was marred by prosecutorial misconduct, a sloppy investigation, junk science and faulty eyewitness testimony.

Wogenstahl first raised the jurisdiction issue in July 2014. The high court agreed to consider the appeal and stayed his execution date. For a summary of the case from the Ohio Supreme Court, click here.

Wogenstahl is represented by the Ohio Public Defender’s office.

About the Author