Rittman woman's request for lower bond denied in pizza-delivery murder case
A Rittman woman’s request for a lower bond while she awaits a new trial in the pizza-delivery murder case has been denied.
Summit County Common Pleas Judge Joy Malek Oldfield recently opted to continue Erica Stefanko’s bond at $2 million, 10 percent, or $200,000.
Jeff Laybourne and Angie Kille, Stefanko’s attorneys, asked that Oldfield, the administrative judge for Summit County Common Pleas Court, lower her bond because her conviction was overturned.
Prosecutors, though, argued Stefanko’s bond should remain the same because she poses more of a flight risk, after having been convicted of aggravated murder.
Stefanko, 39, was convicted in November 2020 of aggravated murder and murder in the 2012 slaying of Ashley Biggs, a Jackson Township woman. Police say she made a bogus pizza delivery call that lured Biggs, 25, to where she was killed.
Chad Cobb, Stefanko’s ex-husband, was sentenced to life in prison for Biggs’ murder. He and Biggs were engaged in a custody dispute over their then-6-year-old daughter.
More:Appeals court reverses conviction of Rittman woman in pizza-delivery murder trial
The 9th District Court of Appeals overturned Stefanko’s conviction in July, finding that her rights were violated when Cobb was permitted to testify via video from prison.
Stefanko has been moved from the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville to the Summit County Jail. She will have a pretrial Jan. 9 before newly elected Judge Jennifer Towell, who will handle her new trial.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Rittman woman denied lower bond request in pizza-delivery murder case
