Convicted murderer Auerswald loses federal appeal
Medina man killed his wife by giving her antifreeze
Dennis Auerswald
MEDINA — A federal appeals court denied a petition request Jan. 24 from the former city resident who murdered his wife by poisoning her with antifreeze in 2009.
Dennis Auerswald, now 66, was sentenced to life in prison after a 2011 trial where he was convicted of aggravated murder and murder in a two-week trial. He will be eligible for parole for the first time in 2040.
Auerswald, who maintained his innocence at his 2011 sentencing hearing, first appealed his conviction in state court, arguing the trial judge, Common Pleas Judge Christopher Collier, erred in excluding testimony from Auerswald’s former boss at trial, citing it was hearsay as the boss did not directly hear it, so it was declared inadmissible.
The boss reported overhearing Auerswald telling his wife Maureen Auerswald during a phone conversation the day she died to “stop drinking that stuff and go to a doctor,” which Dennis Auerswald argued was proof he was concerned for his wife’s wellbeing.
The “stuff” was reportedly Pepto-Bismol, which Maureen Auerswald was taking due to feeling ill after ingesting the antifreeze previously.
“But he overlooks the truth that his boss could not testify as to Auerswald’s actual intent in making the statement on the phone, nor could his boss testify that Auerswald was even speaking to his wife on the phone,” according to a brief filed by the state attorney general’s office in support of dismissing Auerswald’s petition request.
Before her death, Maureen Auerswald had suffered from abdominal pain and later passed out at her residence before eventually being transferred to MetroHealth Medical Center, where she died later that day.
The state’s Ninth District Court of Appeals in Akron denied Auerswald’s appeal in 2013 and the Ohio Supreme Court refused to rule on it.
In 2014, Auerswald filed a writ of habeas corpus in federal court, stating the exclusion of the testimony denied him the right to a fair trial and he is being unlawfully imprisoned.
The U.S. District Court dismissed his petition in 2015, stating even if the trial court had erred in excluding testimony, it was a harmless error and would not have changed the outcome of his trial.
Auerswald then appealed this ruling to the Sixth District Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, which issued its denial in a Jan. 24 ruling.
He is incarcerated at Marion Correctional Institution.
Dennis Auerswald, now 66, was sentenced to life in prison after a 2011 trial where he was convicted of aggravated murder and murder in a two-week trial. He will be eligible for parole for the first time in 2040.
Auerswald, who maintained his innocence at his 2011 sentencing hearing, first appealed his conviction in state court, arguing the trial judge, Common Pleas Judge Christopher Collier, erred in excluding testimony from Auerswald’s former boss at trial, citing it was hearsay as the boss did not directly hear it, so it was declared inadmissible.
The boss reported overhearing Auerswald telling his wife Maureen Auerswald during a phone conversation the day she died to “stop drinking that stuff and go to a doctor,” which Dennis Auerswald argued was proof he was concerned for his wife’s wellbeing.
The “stuff” was reportedly Pepto-Bismol, which Maureen Auerswald was taking due to feeling ill after ingesting the antifreeze previously.
“But he overlooks the truth that his boss could not testify as to Auerswald’s actual intent in making the statement on the phone, nor could his boss testify that Auerswald was even speaking to his wife on the phone,” according to a brief filed by the state attorney general’s office in support of dismissing Auerswald’s petition request.
Before her death, Maureen Auerswald had suffered from abdominal pain and later passed out at her residence before eventually being transferred to MetroHealth Medical Center, where she died later that day.
The state’s Ninth District Court of Appeals in Akron denied Auerswald’s appeal in 2013 and the Ohio Supreme Court refused to rule on it.
In 2014, Auerswald filed a writ of habeas corpus in federal court, stating the exclusion of the testimony denied him the right to a fair trial and he is being unlawfully imprisoned.
The U.S. District Court dismissed his petition in 2015, stating even if the trial court had erred in excluding testimony, it was a harmless error and would not have changed the outcome of his trial.
Auerswald then appealed this ruling to the Sixth District Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, which issued its denial in a Jan. 24 ruling.
He is incarcerated at Marion Correctional Institution.