The Akron Legal News

No new trial for woman convicted of conspiracy in her husband’s 1998 murder

JESSICA SHAMBAUGH
Special to the Legal News
Published: August 2, 2013

A woman convicted of conspiracy and complicity in the 1998 aggravated murder of her husband is not entitled to a new trial, according to the 12th District Court of Appeals.

Joy Major Hoop argued she was entitled to a new trial after evidence surfaced that she did not provide the gun used to kill her husband.

The three-judge appellate panel, however, disagreed and found the evidence did not provide a strong probability of a different outcome.

The case history states that Hoop owned Slammers Bar in Mt. Orab, Ohio in 1997. On Feb. 10 of that year, she was heard by several customers discussing killing her husband.

Later that night, Deputy Buddy Moore of the Brown County Sheriff’s Office noticed someone sitting in a truck in Slammers’ parking lot with only the parking lights on.

He noted the truck parking in a nearby trailer park and the occupant entering the trailer.

Shortly after seeing the truck park, Moore was dispatched to a shooting in Slammers’ parking lot where he found Hoop crying over the body of her husband. Hoop’s husband died of a gunshot wound.

Moore returned to the trailer and found the driver of the truck in the bathroom washing himself with clothes soaking in bloody water in the bathtub and a pocket knife and a box of ammunition near the sink.

The man was later convicted of killing Hoop’s husband and given the death penalty.

Upon questioning, Hoop admitted that she and her acquaintances, including the shooter, had discussed killing her husband on the night in question.

Hoop insisted the conversation was a joke and was indicted on counts of conspiracy and complicity in the aggravated murder of her husband.

Several bar patrons testified to hearing Hoop discuss killing her husband and said at the time they believed she was not serious but later became unsure of her intentions.

The Brown County Court of Common Pleas found Hoop guilty and sentenced her to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.

Hoop’s conviction and sentence were later affirmed and her first petition for a new trial was denied.

“Hoop continues to advocate her innocence despite the abundance of evidence directly implicating her in the murder-for-hire scheme,” 12th District Judge Stephen Powell wrote for the court.

She later filed a second motion for a new trial. The motion states that she identified the identity of the person who provided the gun used to commit the murder.

The Brown County court ruled that the new evidence “was cumulative and served only to impeach the evidence previously introduced at her trial.”

Finding that it would not change the outcome of the trial, the trial court denied her motion and she appealed to the 12th District.

Under Crim.R. 33, to receive a new trial a defendant must prove that the new evidence “discloses a strong probability that it will change the result if a new trial is granted,” could not have been found prior to the trial, is not merely cumulative, and does more than impeach or contradict the former evidence.

The appellate panel found that Hoop’s new evidence only showed she did not “own, possess, or provide the murder weapon.”

They held that other witnesses had already come forth to say the gun used did not belong to Hoop and the evidence would only impeach previously used evidence.

“Furthermore, whether Hoop provided the gun to (the shooter) is not material to her conviction in the murder-for-hire scheme, nor is there a strong probability that this evidence would change the outcome if a new trial were granted,” Powell stated.

The judges maintained that the state’s theory was Hoop was involved in planning her husband’s murder and that she did not have to have provided the gun to prove her guilt.

Finding the new evidence did not give a strong probability for a different outcome, the judges overruled Hoop’s claims.

Presiding Judge Robert Ringland and Judge Robin Piper joined Powell to affirm the trial court.

The case is cited State v. Hoop, 2013-Ohio-3078.

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