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LIMA -- A man serving the longest prison sentence in Ohio history for animal abuse will remain behind bars after losing his appeal.
The Third District Court of Appeals ruled on Monday against Steffen Baldwin, who is serving 15.5 years following his January 2025 conviction in Union County. The case was investigated by Campbell Police patrol officer Jim Conroy after a local couple filed a complaint alleging Baldwin had wrongfully euthanized their dog, Remi, after promising to rehabilitate the pit bull and have his "dangerous dog" designation removed.
The former Union County humane agent and founder of Animal Cruelty Task Force of Ohio was convicted of 32 felonies, including animal cruelty, telecommunications fraud, tampering with records, grand theft, bribery and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.
Litsa and Angelo Kargakos rescued Remi from the Trumbull County Dog Pound. He had been designated as dangerous following two biting incidents, but had made substantial progress after months of work with a trainer. Baldwin, then a Union County humane agent who had developed an international following as a gifted rehabilitator of aggressive dogs, told the Kargakoses he could have the designation removed for $1,000.
Instead, Baldwin had Remi euthanized Dec. 28, 2016. He never had the designation removed and later repeatedly gave false updates about Remi after the dog was dead.
The appellate court upheld Baldwin’s bribery conviction over the $1,000 payment and rejected his challenge to his animal cruelty convictions, finding evidence that Remi and another dog, Gucci, were needlessly killed despite having homes to which they could have been returned.
Remi’s case ultimately exposed a much broader operation.
The appeals court said at least 18 dogs Baldwin purported to rescue died or were euthanized between 2014 and 2016, while Baldwin in many cases concealed their deaths and told people they had been adopted. Prosecutors also established that Baldwin used ACTFO accounts for personal expenses.
"We are very happy with the result coming back from the appeals court," Union County Assistant Prosecutor Melissa Chase said. "There was a lot of ground to cover for us to write it and to argue it, so we're very pleased the appeals court saw it the way the state did."
Baldwin raised 11 assignments of error in his appeal, challenging his convictions and sentence on grounds ranging from insufficient evidence and violations of his right to a speedy trial to prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective assistance of counsel and the state's alleged failure to disclose evidence concerning Conroy. The three-judge appellate panel rejected each argument and affirmed Baldwin's convictions and sentence.
Baldwin argued that the 1,258 days between his arrest and trial violated his constitutional and statutory speedy-trial rights. The appeals court, however, found that most of that time did not count against the state, including more than 760 days that Baldwin and prosecutors jointly agreed to while he obtained new counsel. Other delays resulted from defense motions, a state appeal and a period when Baldwin was medically unavailable. The court found fewer than the 270 chargeable days permitted under Ohio law had passed.
Baldwin also argued prosecutors violated his due-process rights by failing to disclose disciplinary records involving Conroy. Those claims focused on a lone incident from Conroy's time with the Youngstown Police Department in 2000, when he was briefly fired over an allegation that he had improperly ordered an individual arrested.
Conroy said he was not a supervisor, had not ordered the arrest and was reinstated after it was determined he had committed no violation. Conroy said he has never been disciplined during his time with Campbell police.
The appeals court found no violation because Baldwin's attorneys obtained the records before the trial court reached a verdict. The judge reopened the case for a 15th day of trial just so the defense could question Conroy about the disciplinary matters. The appeals court found that because the information was presented to the judge before he determined Baldwin's guilt, Baldwin could not establish that the delayed disclosure prejudiced his defense.
The appeals court also rejected Baldwin's remaining claims, finding that the evidence supported his convictions; the replacement trial judge was sufficiently familiar with the case; and that Baldwin failed to establish prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective assistance of counsel or cumulative error.
The court also found his 15½-year sentence was within the ranges permitted by law and rejected his argument that the trial court improperly imposed maximum consecutive sentences, noting that none of the imposed sentences reached the statutory maximums for those offenses.
In particular, engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity is a first-degree felony carrying a possible 3-to-11-year term, and Baldwin's judge imposed only four years.
The case also tested a largely undeveloped portion of Ohio law.
"When I charged him with the cruelty it was for needless killing of animals and that statute had never been really used before," Conroy said.
Chase said that while she has used the statute in the past, it was never used in this way.
"Our theory was unique, because there's not a lot of case law on what the definition of needless killing is, it's more common sense application," she said. "The cases we normally pursue under that statute are the tragic cases where someone fatally harms an animal."
It was here that the reputation Baldwin had worked so hard to cultivate worked against him.
"The state's theory was, Baldwin had carved out a niche for himself as an amazing rehabilitator of these challenged dogs, but behind the scenes he didn't actually work with them and when he couldn't use them any more and needed more room, he had them killed," Chase said.
Baldwin's promises to dog owners and his need to maintain his reputation ultimately helped to form a new definition of needless killing.
"I don't even know how much money he got out of it," Chase said. "In my opinion, he became addicted to the adulation and fame, and in a way that was a little more important than the money to him."
Chase said Baldwin's legal rights to automatic appeal are now exhausted.
"He can still file a memorandum in support of jurisdiction for the Ohio Supreme Court, but there are requirements he has to meet," she said.
That memorandum is how he would try to convince the court that there exists a conflict in the districts over some issue of law, or that some aspect of the case represents a matter of great public interest.
Chase said the case should be a cautionary tale.
"I hope it serves as a deterrent to people who want to scam folks in the animal rescue community," she said.
Separate from the animal cruelty, Baldwin also has been linked to a 2004 missing person case.
Maura Murray disappeared on Feb. 9, 2004, after her car was found crashed along Route 112 in Haverhill, New Hampshire.
Shortly after his conviction last year, FBI agents hurried to interview Baldwin because his fingerprints matched a piece of evidence found in the car. Authorities know that Baldwin and Murray knew each other from their time as cadets at West Point Academy.
Author and journalist James Renner, who wrote "True Crime Addict" about his investigation into the Maura Murray case, said he hasn't heard any updates about the case since the fingerprint revelation. New Hampshire State Police are also notoriously tight-lipped about the case.
"They keep it pretty quiet," Renner said. "But I'd say as far as leads go, he's the best they've had in about 20 years."