“This pattern of witness intimidation is so pernicious to Mr. South’s alibi defense that no remedy exists which will re-instill the free will of the witnesses to testify with confidence.” – R. Robert Umholtz
The attorney for the man accused of murdering Daniel Ott almost a decade ago is asking a Geauga County judge to dismiss the indictment on grounds of government misconduct.
In a 62-page motion filed March 25 in the Geauga County Court of Common Pleas, Geauga County Public Defender R. Robert Umholtz claims the state of Ohio has engaged in a “pattern of interfering with defense witnesses/witness intimidation, evidence obstruction and making false or misleading statements” to the court, all of which have impeded or frustrated Chad South’s ability to prepare and present his defense.
South, 46, of Moraine, is one of five people charged in the May 26, 2006, murder-for-hire plot in Burton Township that resulted in the wrong Daniel Ott being killed.
The Daniel Ott who was the intended target of the botched hit would have been nearly 70 years old at the time. While that Daniel Ott also lived in Northeast Ohio, he did not live in Geauga County.
South along with 60-year-old Joseph Rosebrook, of Florida, and his 57-year-old brother, Carl “Jeff” Rosebrook, of East Liberty, were all charged in a single five-count indictment filed June 10, 2015.
The five counts are conspiracy to commit aggravated murder, aggravated murder with prior calculation and design, aggravated murder during the commission of aggravated burglary, kidnapping of Ott and kidnapping of Ott’s then-girlfriend, Maryann Ricker.
Geauga County Prosecutor Jim Flaiz denied any misconduct by the state.
“The investigation by the detectives in this case is above reproach,” Flaiz said Tuesday in an email to the Geauga County Maple Leaf. “We will be filing our response today and we look forward to the hearing on Thursday.”
Judge Forrest W. Burt has scheduled a hearing on the motion at 9 a.m. April 7.
According to prosecutors, Joseph Rosebrook hired South to kill Daniel Ott, a federally convicted car thief and reputed Rosebrook associate, in retaliation for Ott’s role in convicting him of attempted murder for hire in 2005.
While serving a 10-year prison sentence, prosecutors said Joseph Rosebrook put out the hit on Ott.
Authorities have said the elder Rosebrook and South had both spent time together in the Logan County jail and at the London Correctional Institution.
Carl Rosebrook was the moneyman in the operation, according to authorities, and was responsible for paying South the money.
In December, a Geauga County grand jury indicted Mindie Mock Stanifer, 37, of Westmoreland, Tenn., with two counts of aggravated murder, two counts of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy to commit murder, and Alva Jacobs, 35, of Huntsville, Ala., with felony obstructing justice.
Prosecutors allege the two drove with South from the Dayton area to Burton Township on the day of the shooting.
According to Umholtz’s motion, both Stanifer and Jacobs were offered immunity from prosecution, but when they refused “to testify in accordance with the state’s narrative” they were indicted.
Throughout the course of the investigation, Umholtz claims Geauga County Sheriff’s Office detectives employed interview techniques based on “fear, veiled threats and intimidation to steer information into a form compatible with their narrative.”
Example of potential misconduct Umholtz cited included telling Stanifer she needed to fear South and his associates; telling her in text messages she going to prison for her role in the murder; and visiting her mentally ill and fragile mother, and laying out crime scene photos for her to see.
However, the most egregious example of intimidation and witness interference, according to Umholtz, involved Jason Harvey, South’s former employer who lives in Dayton, and Chad Malay, a former co-worker.
In February, Harvey told an investigator with the state public defender’s office that both South and Malay were working for him on March 26, 2006, Umholtz said. Despite almost 10 years passing, Harvey told the investigator he recalled the date because it was the day his son was born.
Harvey recalled Malay visiting him in the hospital that day to see his son and, if South had not been at work, said Malay would have told him because he didn’t care for South.
Umholtz also said Malay told the investigator he specifically remembered working with South that morning before he went to the hospital.
Last month, however, Umholtz said Harvey stopped cooperating with the defense after detectives met with him on March 7.
“He said they not only threatened him with prosecution and jail time for lying, they also went to his children’s mother’s home and, after talking to her and telling her Mr. Harvey was involved in a murder, his son is now afraid to talk to him,” Umholtz alleged in the motion.
Malay had quit work and apparently has left the area, the public defender added.
“The question now is whether Chad South has been prejudiced of sufficient magnitude to justify dismissing the indictment,” Umholtz argued. “This pattern of witness intimidation is so pernicious to Mr. South’s alibi defense that no remedy exists which will re-instill the free will of the witnesses to testify with confidence.”
Umholtz also argued the Geauga County Prosecutor’s Office delayed and withheld discovery evidence beneficial to the defense.
He claims prosecutors did not accurately describe to the court scheduling problems for a disposition of Richard Carter, who Umholtz called a career criminal. Carter was serving time at London Correctional Institution while South was incarcerated there for 7 1/2 months in 2010.
“Chad South has been indicted for alleged offenses which carry among the most extreme penalties under our laws,” Umholtz said in his motion. “The evidence the state will present at trial is circumstantial. No physical or scientific evidence exists to connect Chad South to the murder of Dan Ott. No physical evidence exists to place Chad South at the scene of the murder of Dan Ott. The state’s evidence is limited to jailhouse snitches whose credibility are suspect at best.”
