The trial for a Medina man accused of leaving his 20-month-old daughter’s dead body in a crib has been postponed.
Eric Warfel
Eric Warfel, 34, was arrested Wednesday, July 29, after an Armstrong Cable technician, who was installing upgrades in all of the apartments where Warfel had been residing, found the decomposed body of Ember Warfel and called police.
A pretrial hearing is set for Thursday in Medina County Common Pleas Court when a new trial date is expected to be scheduled.
Eric Warfel was arrested in Crocker Park in Westlake with help from Fairview Park and Westlake police in a daylong investigation. He was with his daughter, Elizabeth, who was age 7 at the time.
Elizabeth Warfel was released after questioning to the custody of her grandparents.
Eric Warfel was charged with gross abuse of a corpse, evidence tampering, three counts of child endangering and two counts of possession of cocaine.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges by reason of insanity but was found competent to stand trial.
Ember Warfel
Medina County Prosecutor Dean Holman asked that Warfel’s trial, scheduled for Jan. 19, be postponed, since the autopsy of the girl has not yet been completed, “due to the advanced state of decomposition of her body when she was found.”
“The state is unable to make a final charging decision regarding the defendant’s course of conduct in this case without the autopsy,” Holman’s motion reads.
Medina County Coroner Neil Grabenstetter said Thursday that the final autopsy report has taken “an unusually long period.”
He said the state of decomposition of the body has required “more sophisticated tests.”
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