Medical records obtained from Sarah Widmer’s employer showed she had a heart murmur as a child, even though her mother, Ruth Ann Steward, testified that she had no prior heart condition or history, according to a motion filed by attorneys Jay Clark, Lindsey Gutierrez and Hal Arenstein.
In a medical history questionnaire Sarah Widmer filled out Oct. 5, 2006, for her employer John Becker, Widmer, then using her maiden name Sarah Steward, circled ‘yes’ to the question, “Have you ever been told by a physician that you have a heart murmur?” then scribbled “as a child” in the margin.
“Ruth Ann Steward will have to explain forgetting Sarah’s heart murmur,” the Widmer defense team wrote. “Future jurors who are also mothers may find it difficult to believe a mother forgetting their child has a heart murmur... In light of this information, the prosecution can no longer claim Sarah did not have any prior heart problems or condition. Both of these factors weaken the prosecution’s case in any future trial.”
The motion filed in Warren County Common Pleas Court comes a month after the jury of five men and seven women were deadlocked after 31 hours of deliberations and a 16-day trial in Judge Neal Bronson’s courtroom.
The defense team called the prosecution’s presentation “shot-gun” “see-what-sticks” and a “lack-of-a-theory-of-the-case” in its motion for acquittal.
The defense team noted the prosecution presented “two non-board certified forensic pathologists” who “contradicted each other on several key points.”
Warren County Coroner Dr. Russell Uptegrove admitted under cross examination that the bruising on Sarah Widmer’s neck was not consistent with strangling, while Dr. C. Jeffrey Lee maintained it was.
The defense also cited the lack of motive, the lack of injuries on Sarah’s body, “shoddy police investigation (that) was led by an inexperienced detective with questionable credibility for a police department which had not investigated a homicide in over a decade” and the lack of DNA or defensive wounds on Ryan Widmer that experts said would normally be present during an attack.
A jury a year ago found Widmer guilty of murder and he was sentenced to prison for 15 years to life. That conviction was overturned and a new trial ordered because of jury misconduct during deliberations.
Widmer was released from prison last September and has been living with his mother in Mason under a $400,000 bond.
Because of the intense publicity about the case, Bronson imposed a gag order, so the attorneys can only speak through their motions.
Now that the defense filed its motion, prosecutors have until July 21 to file a response; Bronson already scheduled an Aug. 3 hearing. If Bronson denies the acquittal motion, Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel will have decide whether to try Widmer for a third time.
“The state’s case is nothing more than speculation based on assumptions. Despite a lack of supporting evidence, the prosecution argues since Ryan was the only person at the house at the time Sarah drowned, Ryan must have forcibly drowned her,” the defense team stated.
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