House of Secrets
June 16, 2012 7:45 PM
An unusual 911 call begs the question: Did an Ohio anesthesiologist gas his wife to death?
Did Ohio anesthesiologist gas his wife to death?
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See all 81 Commentshttp://blog.beenzapped.com/2012/10/26/oh-anesthesiologist-wanglers-appeal-for-a-new-murder-trial-fails/
While I THINK he is guilty and the "cold body" seems to me the most damning evidence (to me), after reading the appeal process, it seems to me that the court's reasons for not allowing a re-trial are somewhat questionable
Oct26th 2012 Leave a Comment Written by SBurrows
A Lima, Ohio, anesthesiologist convicted last year of murdering his wife by poisoning her with Carbon Monoxide he pumped into their home from an automobile has lost his bid for a new trial.
The Ohio 3rd District Court of Appeals rejected Dr. Mark Wangler's appeal Monday. Wangler is serving a life sentence in the September 4th, 2006, death of his wife Kathy.
On the night of September 4, 2006, The Wanglers, according to Mark, were asleep in their residence. Kathy slept in a bedroom located on the second floor, while Mark slept in the master bedroom located on the first floor. At 5:18 a.m., the Allen County Sheriff's Office received a frantic 911 call from Mark exclaiming that the carbon monoxide alarm in his residence was sounding and that Kathy, a diagnosed epileptic, was having a seizure. During the 911 call, but prior to the arrival of emergency services, Mark informed the dispatcher that he had opened the windows in Kathy's bedroom and began performing CPR as she was now not breathing and had no pulse.
Kathy was pronounced dead ion the emergency room and found to have a very high level of CO in her blood. Mark also had significant levels. The medical examiner however found that Kathy had been dead 1-2 hours prior to arriving in the ER. This left the claim of Mark, an anesthesiologist, that his wife was having a seizure when he found her, an impossibility. Though his blood level of CO can easily cause confusion. Tests by the gas company that morning on the water heater and furnace found no leak of CO. Investigators began theorizing that exhaust from the car in the garage was the source of the CO and that the poisoning of Kathy was intentional. They discovered evidence of a failed marriage and when lab results came back consistent with care exhaust having entered the house, Wangler was indicted and arrested for murder. Wangler was convicted on March 16, 2011, of the aggravated murder of his wife.
On appeal, Wangler argued that the trial court erred in denying his motions to suppress evidence obtained from the Wangler home in two search warrants; that the trial court erred in refusing to exclude the testing performed by the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene ("the Lab") and the testimony of the Lab's employees; that the trial court erred in excluding testimony of his expert witness, Frederick Teeters; and, that he was denied a fair trial as a result of discovery violations that denied him access to material evidence. Based on these claims of error, Wangler sought a new trial. Let's look at each claim and the findings of the court.
Refusal to Suppress Evidence
Wangler argued that the two search warrants issued for his home were flawed, each in its own ways that included false information, stale information, a lack of probable cause and a failure to describe with particularity the items to be seized. He also argued that law enforcement exceeded the scope of the warrants and the trial court erred in applying the "good faith exception" to the items seized.
The prosecution argued that Wangler waived his right to an appeal concerning staleness, particularity of items seized, the inclusion of knowingly false information, and the scope of the search being exceeded when he failed to raise an objection to these at trial. The court denied Wangler's challenges here with the exception of the wrongful seizure of 2 handwritten journals, which the court found "were improperly seized under the April search warrant, and therefore erroneously admitted during
trial." When an error is found by the court they must then decide whether or not it harmed the appellant in such a way as to affect the outcome of the trial. Despite the fact that the handwritten journals contained entires which could easily be interpreted as indications of guilt, the court found no prejudice to the appellant from their inclusion at trial. This is because they did not contain OVERWHELMING evidence of guilt. From the decision:
If this had been my husband, he'd be convicted too. He routinely opens a window where he sleeps because he wakes up needing fresh air. He does not exhibit "normal" emotions and doesn't always react to things the way a "normal person would.
What evidence did they have to put this man away for life? That he wrote things in a journal that were unkind about his wife?
There have been times in my marriage that if I had been keeping a journal, especially under a therapists order to be honest and blunt with my feelings, that I would have made intensely angry, mean entries...but I love my husband very much.
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