Saturday, May 20, 2000
Slaying still juvenile case, Wehrung lawyers say
By Dan Horn
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Attorneys for 52-year-old Michael Wehrung say his murder case belongs in juvenile court.
Mr. Wehrung was charged earlier this month with beating to death his then-girlfriend, Patricia Rebholz, as she walked to his house after a dance in 1963.
Because Mr. Wehrung was 15 at the time, his attorneys say, he still is a teen-ager in the eyes of the law.
The distinction is important because Mr. Wehrung could face a life sentence if he is convicted of murder charges in adult court.
If the case goes to juvenile court, he likely would face no jail time.
His lawyers, Earle Maiman and Jim Perry, presented their written arguments this week to Judge Patrick Dinkelacker. The judge will decide the issue June 8 in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.
Prosecutors contend they can charge Mr. Wehrung as an adult because a 1996 law allows such charges against suspects who were not “taken into custody or apprehended” until after they turn 21.
Mr. Wehrung's lawyers argue that it is improper to apply the 1996 law retroactively to a 1963 case.
“The exclusive original jurisdiction of the juvenile court has remained intact in the 37 years that have passed since the Rebholz murder,” they wrote.
They also said the law does not apply because Mr. Wehrung was apprehended by police. They said officers questioned him repeatedly — one day for nine hours — following Patty's death.
They noted that he later was transferred to a juvenile detention facility after a juvenile court judge, Benjamin Schwartz, declared him a dependent of the state.
The judge said he took that action because the police questioning had made it impossible to obtain a proper statement from the teen suspect.
“Fifteen-year-old Michael Wehrung was as "apprehended' as a person could be,” his lawyers wrote. “He was repeatedly interrogated by police in his own home and also interrogated in various police stations.”
After Judge Schwartz declared him a dependent, Mr. Wehrung spent the next two years at a military school in North Carolina.
Prosecutors are expected to respond to the defense arguments next month.
They had resumed investigating the case late last year in hopes of turning up new evidence. Although DNA tests failed to connect Mr. Wehrung to the crime, prosecutors say they also interviewed dozens of witnesses who had “very keen memories.”
Mr. Wehrung has not spoken to prosecutors about the case since 1963, but has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge.
Patty was killed late on Aug. 8 or early Aug. 9, 1963, across the street from Mr. Wehrung's house in Greenhills. She was beaten several times on the head with a piece of fence post.
Her body was found the next day. Within a few days, investigators publicly identified Mr. Wehrung as a suspect.
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