Nearly 40 years after his sentencing, a Toledo man no longer could be put to death after a Lucas County judge ruled his original penalty unconstitutional because the prosecution withheld material from his attorney.
Gregory Esparza, now 60, was convicted of aggravated murder and aggravated robbery, both with firearm specifications, in 1984 for the shooting death of an East Toledo carryout clerk. After a jury trial, Esparza was sentenced to death, and remained in line for a lethal injection for decades.
“Esparza has not asked this Court to determine whether the evidence exonerates him,” wrote Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Stacy Cook in a recent judgment entry. “Therefore, the Court’s examination is limited to the question of whether the death penalty was imposed in a violation of the U.S. Constitution.”
Judge Cook dismissed the death sentence and noted that Esparza is entitled to a new sentencing hearing, which, according to assistant Lucas County prosecutor Evy Jarrett, has not yet been scheduled. Esparza’s defense attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
He was convicted after the Island Variety Carryout in the 700 block of Dearborn Avenue was robbed at gunpoint on Feb. 12, 1983. The clerk, Melanie Gerschultz, 38, was shot, and later died from the wound. The robber got away with $110 from the register.
During Esparza’s trial, two key witnesses came forward – Esparza’s sister and a fellow inmate. Both testified that Esparza had confessed to the murder to them. That was enough for the jury to convict him. It also was a decision that set off a series of appeals filed by Esparza.
In her written opinion, Judge Cook said that the state failed to give material evidence to the Esparza defense before trial in 1984, including reports naming other possible suspects, interviews, and supplemental police reports. The Ohio Sixth District Court of Appeals previously called it “a substantial volume of exculpatory evidence” that prompted speculation about whether Esparza acted alone.
Though it was unclear to both courts whether the state had been acting in bad faith or out of negligence when failing to disclose evidence, they agreed that the evidence could have arguably changed the outcome of the trial.
“Although the prosecution may not have been aware that the reports existed, the prosecution still violated its duty to disclose this evidence to the defense,” Judge Cook wrote. “The State’s thumb on the scale of justice weighed particularly heavy in this matter.
“More importantly, the undisclosed reports would have shown the jury evidence that Esparza did not act alone, and, therefore, he may not have been the principal offender,” the judge continued. “Therefore, the Sixth Amendment requires the imposition of the death sentence to be vacated.”
On Wednesday, Esparza was transferred from the Chillicothe Correctional Institution to the Lucas County jail to await sentencing. He will be held without bond until further order of the court.
Esparza filed two direct appeals of his conviction and sentence in 1986 and 1988, before the district appellate court and the Ohio Supreme Court, respectively. Back then, both appeals were denied.
However, after Esparza filed a public records request with the Toledo Police Department in 1991, a large number of police reports, interviews, and other documents were revealed to have never been given to Esparza’s defense team. That prompted Esparza’s first post-conviction petition to the state court of appeals, which was denied in 1992.
In 1995, Esparza’s application to reopen the case, filed again with the state court of appeals, was denied. It wasn’t until 2000 that Esparza had a small win, after the U.S. District Court in Toledo overturned the death sentence based on a “defective indictment.”
The success was short-lived, as in 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the 2000 decision at the request of the Ohio Attorney General, holding that the indictment wasn’t fatally flawed in failing to charge Esparza as the “principal offender.” On a remand from the Supreme Court, the district court re-examined the evidence in 2013, again finding that it was still sufficient for a conviction.
In 2016, Esparza filed his second and final petition for relief, again based on suppression of the 1991 evidence. Originally, the Lucas County Common Pleas Court denied it, as federal courts had already reviewed that evidence and rejected Esparza’s claims. However, the state appellate court later reversed that decision, agreeing with Esparza that to date, no court had addressed the 1991 evidence in the context of capital punishment.
First Published December 8, 2022, 10:46 p.m.
