YOUNGSTOWN — Robert L. Moore’s murder retrial was ruled a mistrial Friday at the defense team’s request because his attorney, Lou DeFabio, has a family health issue.

The case will be tried again July 15, according to Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Patrick Fening. The case has seen several delays since Moore was first found not guilty in June 2022 on the charge of aggravated murder in the 2009 presumed murder of 16-year-old Glenna J. White of Alliance.

The jury was hung, meaning unable to decide, on whether Moore was guilty of murder, so prosecutors decided to try Moore again on that charge.

The evidence the first jury heard was that Moore was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 1993 and was sentenced to 10 to 25 years in prison after admitting to killing Virginia Lecorchick, 22, near Berlin Lake in 1993. Moore spent 15 years in prison.

POSTPONEMENTS

At least seven postponements have been counted by this newspaper, including Friday’s decision.

One postponement was because of the unavailability of a witness. Mike Yacovone, then-Mahoning County assistant prosecutor, told Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court that the postponement was necessary because a witness would not be available.

Another postponement was when Sweeney issued a judgment entry postponing the Jan. 23, 2023, retrial because of questions about “information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.”

The filing stated that on Jan. 18, attorneys from the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office and DeFabio approached the court “with newly discovered information regarding the case.”

It stated that the parties “are in receipt of information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a case file is present and available” on White.

The filing does not say what kind of new information is contained in the file, but the parties “jointly requested a continuance of the trial set for Jan. 23, 2023,” and the judge approved it, setting a pretrial hearing for 9 a.m. Jan. 30, 2023.

Another postponement was Aug. 5, 2023, when Sweeney issued a continuation until Aug. 21, 2023, following a dispute between the prosecution and defense over an expert witness. Court officials did not say what the witness’s testimony would entail.

Another postponement was Aug. 21, 2023, because a key state’s witness was arrested the weekend before. DeFabio said it was necessary for him to obtain information about the arrest so that it possibly could be used during the Moore trial for “impeachment” purposes, meaning undermining the witness’s credibility.

The witness was due for an arraignment hearing in Alliance Municipal Court. DeFabio said he believed the witness was in the Stark County jail. Sweeney said there was no choice but to postpone the trial until October because of the arrest.

Statements made by a potential juror on Oct. 2, 2023, caused another postponement of the trial until Oct. 10, 2023. In that case, a juror arrived for court complaining that he should not have to serve on the jury because he had been convicted of a serious offense.

He was presumed to be eligible nonetheless and forwarded to the judge for jury selection. The potential jurors had come into the courtroom to start jury selection when the potential juror told a court staff member in front of other jurors that he had a felony criminal record.

Another postponement came in October because DeFabio asked for time to obtain additional information on the facts surrounding a Stark County grand jury refusing to indict the witness in the felonious assault case. DeFabio’s Oct. 24 filing gave his reasons for wanting a transcript to be provided of the grand jury proceedings in Stark County. He wanted Sweeney to look at the transcript and determine whether anything in the transcript might be of evidentiary value to Moore’s murder case. Grand jury proceedings are generally secret, so only the judge looked at the transcript. In her Nov. 7 ruling, the judge stated that she reviewed the transcripts and found that “there is no relevant testimony that would in any way benefit the defendant” or the prosecution.

Yacovone advised the court on Oct. 10 that another attorney who was going to try the case with him had contracted COVID-19 and would not be available.

The trial was blocked again in November as the jury pool of 50 people ran out before any alternate jurors had been seated. The attorneys questioned potential jurors throughout the day and seated 12 people. They still needed four alternates. It looked as if they might not be able to seat even one.The pool had been exhausted for a variety of reasons, the attorneys said — many because the trial likely was to extend into Thanksgiving week of last year. Other reasons the potential jurors gave for needing to be excused included knowing the defendant’s family. The trial was now reset to Jan. 8, 2024.

The trial Jan. 8 was postponed due to illness.

In this week’s trial, 75 potential jurors were called to serve on the jury. It was then originally set for Monday, according to court records. Court officials said the postponement was because of the illness. On Friday, DeFabio explained in open court that he had been dealing with a critical health-related issue within his family. His motion to delay the trial was granted by Sweeney.

ALLEGATION

According to court documents, White was visiting a home on Alden Avenue in Smith Township when she left late June 2, 2009, with Moore. White had earlier that night told others in the home that Moore had touched her inappropriately or tried to rape her. Moore’s girlfriend lived at the home.

Moore returned an hour or so later with blood and mud on his clothing. White was not with him, and prosecutors believe Moore was the last person to see her alive.

Glenna’s body was never found. She was visiting a home on Alden Avenue in Smith Township when she left late June 2, 2009, with Moore.

The first trial took place in Mahoning County because Alden Avenue is in Mahoning County, but White’s home actually was near Alliance in Stark County. Because of her poor home life, however, she was staying mostly at a friend’s house near Alliance in the months before her death, a witness testified during the first trial.

The locations mentioned in the trial were throughout the Alliance area, which straddles several county, township and city boundaries. The investigator who brought the case to Mahoning County prosecutors after getting a 2020 tip about the White case is Ed Kennedy of the Portage County Sheriff’s Office. Portage County also is close to the locations involved in the case.

The case could have been tried in Mahoning or Stark counties, because various aspects of the case took place in both, according to prosecutors.

The jury deliberated about two days after about a week of testimony in June 2022 before Sweeney read the not-guilty and hung-jury results.

Moore was handcuffed and taken back to the county jail after the results were read. He has remained in jail since the first trial.

Reporter Ed Runyan contributed to this story.

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