BACKGROUND: *From a previous post of this Blog: "Noling was targeted for the murder of Atwater Township couple Bearnhardt and Cora Hartig because of his criminal history of robbing homes in Alliance in early 1990. But the case has unraveled since nearly the moment it was closed. No physical evidence ever linked Noling to the murders. Instead, he was convicted based on the word of his alleged accomplices, the youngest of whom was just 14 when the murders happened in 1990. They have since recanted their testimony, claiming they were coerced and intimidated by an investigator from the Portage County prosecutor’s office. This is the same prosecutor’s office that pushed for the 1990 manslaughter and murder convictions of two men, Bob Gondor and Randy Resh, during a trial that included false testimony and missing key evidence. They were freed 16 years later after a judge found they were wrongly convicted. Prosecutors in Noling’s case also failed to disclose other likely suspects, including a man who lived nearby and was eventually executed by the state for a different murder."
https://draft.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/7735424171904530212
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY; "Specifically, Mr. Noling’s legal team argues that the State of Ohio failed to disclose several key pieces of evidence that implicated at least two other individuals as suspects in the murders. These key pieces of evidence include: (1) documentary evidence that inculpated a different individual, Dan Wilson, whom the State tried, convicted, and executed in 2009 for an unrelated 1991 aggravated murder conviction; (2) a 1991 report of testing of physical evidence from the crime scene that could not exclude Wilson (by contrast, that physical evidence was later shown definitively not to match Mr. Noling’s DNA); and (3) documentary evidence inculpating Dennis VanSteenberg, an individual first identified as a suspect and questioned by police immediately after the murders, and his father, Raymond VanSteenberg, whose sister-in-law reported to authorities that he had disposed of his .25 caliber pistol at the time of the Hartig murders, and then lied to police when they sought to compare what he misled them to believe was his gun to bullets from the same type of gun used in the Hartig murders."'
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GOST: "On August 12, 2025, Tyrone Noling’s legal team, made up of attorneys at the Ohio Innocence Project, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, and Sidley Austin LLP, filed a motion requesting a new trial for Mr. Noling, an Ohio man wrongfully convicted of the 1991 murders of Bearnhardt and Cora Hartig in Portage County, Ohio.
The motion for a new trial is based on the prosecution’s withholding of exculpatory evidence in violation of Mr. Noling’s constitutional rights under Brady v. Maryland.
Specifically, Mr. Noling’s legal team argues that the State of Ohio failed to disclose several key pieces of evidence that implicated at least two other individuals as suspects in the murders.
These key pieces of evidence include:
(1) documentary evidence that inculpated a different individual, Dan Wilson, whom the State tried, convicted, and executed in 2009 for an unrelated 1991 aggravated murder conviction;
(2) a 1991 report of testing of physical evidence from the crime scene that could not exclude Wilson (by contrast, that physical evidence was later shown definitively not to match Mr. Noling’s DNA); and
(3) documentary evidence inculpating Dennis VanSteenberg, an individual first identified as a suspect and questioned by police immediately after the murders, and his father, Raymond VanSteenberg, whose sister-in-law reported to authorities that he had disposed of his .25 caliber pistol at the time of the Hartig murders, and then lied to police when they sought to compare what he misled them to believe was his gun to bullets from the same type of gun used in the Hartig murders.
At the time of his conviction and death sentencing in 1996, Mr. Noling was only 23 years old.
There is no physical evidence linking Mr. Noling to the crime scene.
Mr. Noling’s conviction rested largely on the testimony of his co-defendants, all of whom have since recanted their testimony.
One of those co-defendants testified under oath that he had been coerced and threatened by Portage County investigators into implicating Mr. Noling.
Because of the prosecution’s withholding of key exculpatory evidence, Mr. Noling’s jury never heard evidence pointing to other suspects that most likely would have changed the outcome of his conviction.
]In fact, one of the jurors from Mr. Noling’s original trial, Christine Richards, has come forward, as reported by the Akron Beacon Journal, to state that she now regrets voting to convict Mr. Noling after learning all of the available facts concerning his prosecution by Portage County attorneys.
Mr. Noling’s motion for a new trial was filed in the Court of Common Pleas in Portage County, Ohio, and seeks to put an end to almost 30 years of injustice Mr. Noling has suffered. The statements set forth in this release are based on that motion and its many supporting exhibits.
The Ohio Innocence Project team is led by attorney Brian Howe. The Weil team is led by partner Mark Perry, counsel Dan Nadratowski, and associate Jennie Hitchcock. The Sidley Austin team is led by partner Eamon Joyce, and associates Sarah Eaton and Wendy Zheng.
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.tyronenoling.com/2025/08/15/tyrone-nolings-legal-team-seeks-justice/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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