Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.
For the third time, a Summit County jury has convicted Willard McCarley of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Charlene Puffenbarger, 25 years ago.
The latest Summit County jury deliberated for about three hours Wednesday, including an hour when they talked while eating pizza during lunch, before announcing they had found McCarley guilty of aggravated murder.
McCarley, as he did in his previous two trials, showed no reaction to the verdict. Puffenbarger’s family, however, celebrated, hugging and patting each other on the back. Her family has remained convinced that McCarley was responsible for her 1992 death, while McCarley has denied this and says he was home sleeping at the time.
“It’s not a happy day,” said Ken Puffenbarger, Charlene’s brother, who attended all of the latest weeklong trial.
“We’re relieved,” he added. “The fact is, she never got to spend ...”
He started crying and walked away. McCarley, 53, will be sentenced at 2 p.m. April 13 by Summit County Common Pleas Judge Joy Oldfield. He faces life in prison.
McCarley was convicted by a jury two other times, but new trials were ordered by higher courts because of trial errors. He previously was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years. He has been in prison for 11 years.
John Greven, one of McCarley’s attorneys in his latest case, said he was disappointed in the verdict but respected the jurors’ decision. He said McCarley will again appeal.
“We thought there was reasonable doubt,” Greven said. “The people it mattered to didn’t.”
Many were surprised by how quickly the latest jury reached its verdict. The last jury that convicted McCarley in 2007 deliberated for parts of three days.
Puffenbarger, 26, was found dead in her Twinsburg Township home on Jan. 20, 1992. She had been beaten, strangled and suffocated. Her sons, ages 2 and 3, were home at the time of her murder, but were unharmed.
McCarley was arrested in 2004, after a cold-case task force reopened the investigation.
In the third trial, Summit County prosecutors stuck with the same account of the murder — saying McCarley killed Puffenbarger to avoid paying child support for their son.
“I respectfully request you to hold this man responsible for what he did 25 years ago,” Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Jonathan Baumoel told jurors in his closing argument.
A second man believed to be involved in the murder was never apprehended.
Defense attorneys, however, called the evidence against McCarley “conjecture, speculation and guessing.”
“There is not a single shred of evidence,” said Scott Rilley, McCarley’s second attorney.
McCarley was in a child support feud with Puffenbarger at the time of her death.
Prosecutors relied on a match of McCarley’s DNA to DNA on a belt used to strangle Puffenbarger, along with statements from several people that Puffenbarger feared McCarley and he had threatened her.
Defense attorneys, however, said the DNA could be from any male member of McCarley’s family, including his 2-year-old son. They questioned the reliability of the witnesses who claimed Puffenbarger feared McCarley, noting that several changed their accounts or gave them years after the murder.
The jury began its deliberations about noon Wednesday and returned with a verdict about 3 p.m.
After the verdict, Baumoel shook hands with Puffenbarger’s family members, including her son Dustin Redmond, now in his 20s. Baumoel hugged Phyllis Puffenbarger, Charlene’s mother, who held a framed portrait of Charlene and her two young boys.
“I just thank God,” Phyllis Puffenbarger said, fighting tears. “Three times. I just don’t know what else to say...”
Ken Puffenbarger, finishing the thought he began earlier, said Charlene never got to see her sons go to kindergarten. He hopes the family’s ordeal will end with McCarley’s sentencing Thursday and that the latest verdict will stand.
“We never had a doubt who did it,” he said. “It has been confirmed — three times.”
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705, swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com or on Twitter: @swarsmithabj .