Erica Stefanko is again convicted of murder for her role in the pizza delivery murder case

Erica Stefanko shook her head sadly Wednesday afternoon when she heard that a jury had again convicted her for her role in the pizza delivery murder case.

Kimberly Biggs, the mother of Ashley Biggs, cried happy tears in the front row of the packed Summit County courtroom.

"We got her!" an emotional Biggs said after the verdict reading. "Justice has prevailed."

Jeff Laybourne, one of Stefanko's attorneys, was disappointed in the decision that jurors reached after deliberating over parts of two days.

"This is part of the game," he said. "We fought hard. These are tough to win."

Jurors found Stefanko guilty of aggravated murder and murder in the 2012 strangulation and beating death of Ashley Biggs.

Stefanko faces life in prison, with the only question being whether she will have the chance for parole. She will be sentenced at 1 p.m. Thursday by Summit County Common Pleas Judge Jennifer Towell. She received life in prison with possible parole after 30 years after her first trial.

Stefanko, 41, of Rittman, plans to appeal.

Stefanko was convicted of the same charges in her first trial in November 2020, but won the right to a new trial when an appellate court ruled that Chad Cobb, Stefanko’s ex-husband who is serving a life sentence for Biggs’ slaying, shouldn’t have been permitted to testify via video.

Stefanko’s second trial started Jan, 22, and wrapped up Tuesday afternoon, with jurors beginning their deliberations about 1:30 p.m.

Unlike in her first trial, Stefanko testified in her second trial, claiming that she made a bogus pizza delivery call that lured Biggs, 25, of Jackson Township, to where she was killed. She denied any knowledge of or part in the murder, though.

Stefanko is arrested seven years after Biggs’ slaying

Stefanko was arrested in November 2019 after New Franklin detectives said new information had come to light about her involvement in Biggs’ slaying in the parking lot of a closed New Franklin business in June 2012.

That included Stefanko making the fake call to Domino’s, where Biggs was a delivery driver, to draw Biggs to where she was killed.

Biggs was tased, beaten and strangled with a zip tie.

At the time of Biggs’ murder, she and Cobb were embroiled in a heated custody dispute concerning their then-7-year-old daughter.

Cobb accepted a plea agreement in 2013 in which he pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and numerous other charges in exchange for not facing the death penalty. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Stefanko was convicted of aggravated murder and murder after a trial in November 2020 that happened at a time when few trials were proceeding because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her conviction was overturned in July 2022, with the appellate court focusing on Cobb’s remote testimony.

Cobb claims Stefanko shares the blame in Biggs’ slaying

Cobb, who appeared in person, testified during Stefanko’s retrial for more than six hours last week.

Cobb said he used a taser on Biggs and severely beat her, but Stefanko put zip ties on Biggs’ neck, hands and feet.

Cobb said he learned when he was in prison that Erica was having an affair with Mike Stefanko, his long-time close friend and employee, and was pregnant with Mike’s child. 

Cobb, 42, is seeking to withdraw the plea in his case, with this request so far denied. 

Stefanko says she thought Cobb planned to plant drugs, not kill Biggs

Stefanko said during her testimony that Cobb was distraught when Biggs, who had been estranged from her daughter for several years, was granted temporary custody of her. She said Cobb hired an attorney and was determined to get his daughter back.

More: Erica Stefanko admits to making bogus pizza delivery call but not to murder

Stefanko said the two of them went to great lengths to try to hurt Biggs’ chances in the custody dispute, including planting marijuana in the car of Biggs’ girlfriend.

When this didn’t work, Stefanko said Cobb came up with a new plan to plant meth in Biggs’ car.

Stefanko said she thought this was the plan on the night of June 12, 2012, when she ordered a pizza using a fake name that lured Biggs to where Cobb was waiting.

“Was the plan then or at any time to kill Ashley Biggs?” attorney Jeff Laybourne asked Stefanko.

“No,” Stefanko said. “Aside from the fact you don’t kill people, it wouldn’t have made any sense.”

Assistant Prosecutor Brian LoPrinzi, though, highlighted how often Stefanko lied during this case and asked why the jury should believe her version of what happened, which she told for the first time on the stand.

Stefanko admitted that she has lied but said she was telling the truth now.

Prosecutor: Stefanko played a part in the slaying

During her closing argument, Assistant Prosecutor Felicia Easter said Chad Cobb killed Biggs but Stefanko helped him.

“He didn’t do it alone,” she said. “That’s why we’re here. She played her part.”

Easter showed photos of Biggs’ badly injured body to the jury.

“This is not a meth plan gone wrong,” she said. “This is a murder carried out.”

Easter played several snippets of the three-hour conversation between Stefanko and Cindee Cobb. These included Stefanko saying:

• “If everything was told as it happened, we would both be in prison now.”

• “It took two of us.”

• “Every time I hear a siren, I think, ‘They’re coming for me.’”

Attorney: Drug planting makes more sense than murder

Laybourne, though, said it would make more sense for Cobb and Stefanko to plan to plant meth on Biggs to hurt her chances in the custody dispute than to plot her demise. He said Cobb and Stefanko had tried this once before with marijuana.

“It’s more logical to go from marijuana to meth rather than marijuana to murder,” said Laybourne, who represented Stefanko with attorney Angie Kille.

Laybourne said murdering Biggs would automatically make Cobb the chief suspect, which is what ultimately happened.

Laybourne noted that no physical evidence, such as DNA, linked Stefanko to the crime scene.

'We hope they find peace,' prosecutor says of Biggs' family

The jurors deliberated for three hours Tuesday and four-and-a-half hours Monday, announcing they had reached a verdict about 1:30 p.m.

Before the verdicts were read, Kimberly Biggs, knelt in the courtroom and prayed.

Jurors found Stefanko guilty of aggravated murder that means purposely causing a person’s death with “prior calculation and design,” and murder that involves purposely causing a person’s death.

Elliot Kolkovich, Summit County's community outreach prosecutor, thanked the New Franklin police for their "relentless investigation" that spanned many years.

Asked his thoughts on the Biggs family, Kolkovich said, "We hope they find peace."

New Franklin Det. Michael Hitchings, who investigated Biggs' murder from the start, said this was a difficult case and it was tough for Biggs' family to go through a trial twice.

"We're lucky the jury saw it our way," Hitchings said. "We thought we had enough to prove it."

Laybourne said he doesn't regret the decision for Stefanko to testify in her retrial.

"She told her truth," he said. "The jury saw it differently."

Biggs said her family wasn't going to give up and will be getting together to celebrate the verdict. She said she hopes this will help all of them to move past this sad chapter.

"Ashley needs her rest," Biggs said.

"I need to move on," she added.

Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com, 330-996-3705 and on Twitter: @swarsmithabj. Beacon Journal reporter Bryce Buyakie contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Erica Stefanko convicted in second trial for pizza delivery murder