Jury blasts police incompetence in Krotine case
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Say officials botched Krotine murder case
Thursday, August 05, 2004
Jim Nichols
Plain Dealer Reporter
A judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in the murder and
evidence-tampering trial of Jeffrey Krotine more than six weeks after
it began.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Timothy McGinty ended nine days of
deadlocked deliberations by sending jurors home angry.
They were angry, they said afterward, at investigators and prosecutors
who presented a case riddled with enough holes that three jurors could
not get past doubts that Krotine did it and many of the others could
understand why.
The majority believed Krotine, 53, was guilty of beating his wife,
shooting her, dumping her body in Brook Park and then altering and
hiding evidence more than a year ago. But three jurors insisted
Krotine may be guilty, yet the state hadn't proven it.
Jurors lambasted Brook Park detectives who investigated the killing,
experts from the county coroner's office who analyzed trace evidence
and prosecutors.
"They're not done," said forewoman Shirley Tomasello of Cleveland, a
lawyer who was in the jury's minority. "I think the taxpayers should
expect a finished job."
Juror Gregg Barrows of Parma said Brook Park's investigation "was like
Andy from Mayberry, and Barney Fife."
"I think there is evidence that could've been obtained that wasn't,
either because of a lack of professionalism or inexperience," said
Barrows, who voted for a guilty verdict. "I know there's not a murder
a day in Brook Park, but there's nothing that says they couldn't have
asked for help from a bigger department, like Cleveland."
Tomasello seethed that a killer - maybe Krotine, maybe someone else,
she said - is free because of gaping holes in the case.
Kim Kowalski, a spokeswoman for County Prosecutor Bill Mason, said the
office will retry the case.
"We firmly believe in our case and feel strongly that we presented the
evidence to the best of our ability," she said.
Krotine, who spent days in court with a Bible in his lap as jurors
debated, declined to comment. So did defense attorneys William "Bud"
Doyle and Mark Stanton.
Brook Park police bore the brunt of jurors' criticism of a murder
investigation that began when Ramona Krotine, missing for nearly two
days, turned up dead in a Regional Transit Authority park-and-ride lot
on March 22, 2003.
The 53-year-old woman, who ran a fudge concession at the International
Exposition Center, disappeared after a post-work party in Middleburg
Heights. Her brother, one of several relatives searching for her,
found her in the trunk of her blood-spattered car.
Prosecutors contended she went home after the party and argued with
her husband. Krotine bashed his wife's face against a bed headboard,
beat her, then dragged her out in a mattress cover, prosecutors
contended. He shot her in her Toyota Camry, stuffed her in the trunk
and ditched the car, they said.
Trial evidence showed that as family members searched for his wife,
Krotine went to his office, then returned home to hunt for a
replacement mattress cover on the Internet. Over the coming weeks,
Krotine recarpeted the bedroom and stairs, repainted the bedroom and
had the house cleaned.
But jurors said things that were not shown at trial raised doubts.
Among the holes, some said, was a lack of proof that Ramona Krotine
had returned home before her death in the predawn hours, rather than
being robbed and killed en route, as the defense insinuated.
The Krotines' 22-year-old daughter, Jennifer, slept near the couple's
bedroom; she testified her mom never came home and that she heard no
fight. But Jennifer told police earlier that she may have heard her
mom return home, and recanted a statement describing jewelry her
missing mother was wearing after police later found it. Several jurors
said they discounted Jennifer Krotine's testimony.
"To me, she perjured herself," said Lisa Yesko of Cleveland, who voted
guilty.
Among faults jurors found:
Investigators never obtained a sample of Krotine's blood to compare it
to unidentified blood on his wife's car.
They ignored an apparently fresh footprint in the car, never comparing
it to the defendant's shoes or shoe size.
Police never interviewed the Krotines' neighbors.
A fiber removed from the car that could have been compared to
materials in the Krotines' home was lost.
"The jury has to deal with what they've got," Brook Park police Capt.
Gregory Ditlevson said. "Unfortunately, if they're critical of our
Police Department or the evidence, that's their opinion. But we stand
by our investigation."
Plain Dealer news researcher Jo Ellen Corrigan contributed to this
story.
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