Court to allow evidence of Rosebrook's criminal past to be introduced at trial
Geauga County Assistant Prosecutor Chris Joyce told a panel of 12 jurors the case they were about to hear was a tragic one.
“It’s about a murder-for-hire. It’s about how . . . Mr. Joseph Rosebrook offered money so that someone would kill a previous business partner of his,” Joyce told the eight men and four women seated in the jury box inside Geauga County Common Pleas Court Judge David Fuhry’s courtroom Monday afternoon.
“It’s also about how that murder-for-hire went wrong, how an innocent and completely unrelated man who had nothing to with the enterprise, an unintended target who happened to unfortunately share the same name fell victim to this contract, this murder-for-hire,” he said.
So began the prosecutions case against Rosebrook, the Florida man accused of masterminding a botched murder-for-hire plot in 2006 that left Daniel E. Ott dead.
Joyce told jurors they would hear evidence that sometime before 2006, Rosebrook and two other men, Curtis Frazier and Daniel C. Ott, were involved in an illegal chop-shop operation in southern Ohio. At some point, Joyce said Rosebrook wanted Frazier gone and asked Daniel C. Ott to kill Frazier.
“Daniel C. Ott, however, did not take him up on that offer. Instead, he went to the police and with his cooperation that plan was, in fact, thwarted,” Joyce said.
After the plan was stopped, Joyce said the evidence would show Rosebrook shifted his focus from Frazier to Daniel C. Ott and would often speak about how he needed to have this “snitch killed.”
“In fact, the defendant spoke about it so often that eventually somebody did take him up on his offer,” Joyce told jurors, adding Rosebrook was introduced to Chad South, a Dayton-area man willing to carry out the contract.
“Mr. South was given the name of Mr. Ott, he was given a picture, it was explained that he lived in the northern part of the state near Akron and it was explained to him that he (Daniel C. Ott) was approximately in his 60s,” Joyce said.
Armed with this information, a cash payment and a loaded shotgun, Joyce said South traveled north (with two other people) to carry out the job.
“This is where the case takes a somewhat unexpected tragic unexpected,” said Joyce. “Not being familiar with the northern part of the state of Ohio, Mr. South found himself in Geauga County and so it was in the early morning hours of May 26, 2006, completely unaware of the existence of Joseph Rosebrook, Curtis Frazier, Dan Ott, Chad South or the then-defunct criminal enterprise that turned these men against each other, a man named Daniel E. Ott, a man in his 30s was asleep in his home in Burton Township.”
Daniel E. Ott had recently accepted a job in Michigan and was preparing to complete his move. On the fateful morning, he and then girlfriend Maryann Ricker were sleeping on an air mattress in the first-floor living room when, shortly after 6 a.m., Ricker was awakened to the sound of footsteps inside the home and alerted Ott.
No sooner than they started listening, Joyce said they both saw a man — South — in the doorway of the living room wearing dark camouflage, a mask and wielding a shotgun.
South orders Ricker and Ott to lie down on the ground and turn away from him. He asks Ott his name and whether anyone else is in the house.
“He (South) starts to unroll duct tape and begins to bind Daniel E. Ott’s hands,” Joyce told jurors. “Fearing for his girlfriend’s safety, at this point Dan jumps up, he rushes at the gunmen, there is a struggle and, unfortunately, Daniel E. Ott was shot point blank in the chest with the shotgun.”
South flees the home and takes off in the car he drove to Geauga County.
Meanwhile, inside the home, Ott covered in blood mutters apologies to Ricker for what happened, Joyce said, before succumbing to his injuries.
“That 31-year-old man not only had his future taken away, because he coincidentally was named Dan Ott, and he wasn’t killed because he showed himself to be heroic in a way that all of us hope we can be, he was killed because of the reckless vendetta of the defendant, a vendetta that led the defendant to send a murderer to his doorstep,” Joyce said.
Rosebrook’s court-appointed lawyer, Henry Hilow, reminded jurors that the lawyers’ opening statements are not evidence.
“The state has presented you with a picture pointing to Mr. Rosebrook as a co-conspirator complicit in the murder of the victim in this case,” Hilow said. “As you listen to the evidence in this case, one thing is clear: It’s clear by the evidence and it’ll be clear by the testimony, that Chad South committed this horrific murder, that Chad South, without any assistance from Mr. Rosebrook decided to undertake this murder with an accomplice.”
He added, “There is not one scintilla of evidence to show of any money or any consideration going from Joe Rosebrook to Chad South to commit the murder of a Dan Ott.”
When South killed Daniel E. Ott, Hilow told jurors his client was in prison.
“I submit to you ladies and gentlemen of the jury, when you hear the evidence in this case, there will not be any direct, indirect, circumstantial evidence that will connect Joe Rosebrook to his horrific crime,” Hilow said. “It’s important as we seek justice in this case, that justice is based on the facts and the evidence, but not on speculation.”
Earlier Monday morning, Fuhry ruled prosecutors would be allowed to introduce at trial evidence of Rosebrook’s prior bad acts as proof of motive; namely, his 2005 conviction for the attempted murder-for-hire of Frazier.
Prosecutors also informed the court that Daniel C. Ott might be called to testify at trial.
Rosebrook’s jury trial resumes at 8:30 Sept. 13 and is expected to last one week.
In June, South was sentenced to a minimum of 28 years in prison for the kidnapping and killing of Daniel E. Ott and the kidnapping of Ricker. After 28 years in prison, South will have a chance for parole.
Rosebrook’s brother, Carl Jeffrey Rosebrook, was the alleged moneyman in the scheme was responsible for paying South the money. His case is set for trial Oct. 11 in Fuhry’s courtroom.
Mindie Mock Stanifer, the woman who drove with South to Burton Township, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for her role. Prosecutors had argued Stanifer helped aid in the murder for drugs and money. She had pleaded guilty in May to one count of involuntary manslaughter and kidnapping, and two counts of obstruction of justice.
The third person in the car, Alva Jacobs, 35, of Huntsville, Ala., was sentenced to 30 days in the Geauga County Safety Center after pleading guilty to first-degree misdemeanor obstruction of justice.
