ELIZABETH DOBBINS / GAZETTE
Eric Warfel listens to the decision as his defense attorney Michael O’Shea, Medina County Prosecuting Attorney Dean Holman and assistant prosecuting attorney Paul Lange take notes.
Eric Warfel was solemn Wednesday morning as a Medina County judge read his decision — guilty on all seven counts related to the death of Warfel’s 20-month-old daughter last year.
Warfel, who will turn 35 on June 15, was arrested last summer after an Armstrong Cable installer found the decomposed body of Ember Warfel in her crib in Medina.
The Medina resident was charged with a third-degree felony, tampering with evidence, and three fifth-degree felonies — gross abuse of a corpse and two counts of cocaine possession. He also was indicted on three counts of endangering children, all first-degree misdemeanors.
Warfel will face up to six years in prison when he is sentenced July 7 by Common Pleas Judge Christopher J. Collier.
After Collier read the decision, Warfel was handcuffed and transported to Medina County Jail, where he will await sentencing.
County Prosecutor Dean Holman said he was pleased with the outcome.
“The case included complex legal issues,” Holman said. “We appreciate the court’s consideration and diligence working through those issues and we also appreciate the fine work of the Medina City Police Department.”
ELIZABETH DOBBINS / GAZETTE
Eric Warfel stands to be handcuffed after the reading of the decision. Defense attorney Michael O’Shea sits in the foreground.
Defense attorney Michael O’Shea said he did not agree with the judge’s interpretation of laws that were cited in the charges against Warfel.
“I respect the process,” he said. “I do disagree that the law fits the fact.”
O’Shea and the prosecution team of Holman and assistant Paul Lange presented conflicting interpretations of several laws involved in the case in concluding statements that were filed with the court last Friday.
At the beginning of the case, Warfel waived his right to a trial by jury, leaving the decision of guilty or not guilty to Collier. The judge heard testimony from 14 witnesses called by the prosecution over three days. The trial concluded with the defense making a motion for acquittal.
According to testimonies, Warfel found Ember dead in their Medina apartment in mid-June of last year, but did not report her death to authorities. A cable technician discovered her body a month and a half later on July 29.
After Warfel’s arrest later the same day, police discovered cocaine in Warfel’s Forest Meadows Apartment and in a Westlake motel where he and an older daughter were staying.
Examiners were unable to determine the child’s cause of death because of an advanced stage of decomposition, prosecutors said.
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