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Though convicted murderer Mitchell Ruble died in prison in February, less than a year after his conviction, final judgment on his appeal was only decided earlier this month.
Ruble, 66, of Lowell, was convicted in April 2016 of killing a former colleague in 1981, Washington County Sheriff's Lt. Ray "Joe" Clark, and was sentenced to life in prison.
But almost immediately after Ruble was sentenced he filed an appeal, contesting five points in the trial that he said led to a wrongful conviction.
His appeal did the following:
1. Asserted that the trial court abused its discretion when it admitted testimony.
2. Asserted that the trial court violated his constitutional rights to due process, confrontation and compulsory process.
3. Claimed that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance because of various acts and omissions.
4. Argued that the trial court committed plain error when it instructed the jury on aiding and abetting, which was part of the charge of aggravated murder in the second jury trial.
5. Asserted that the cumulative effect of errors of the four above warrant the granting of relief, or in layman's terms: that the conviction should be overturned.
"(Ruble and his appeals counsel) took issue with what was allowed in court," said Lt. Jeff Seevers, a detective of the Washington County Sheriff's Office, whose testimony and investigation with the office's cold case unit, provided the facts of Clark's murder. "They appealed my testimony of a conversation I overheard between Mitch and then-Sheriff Bob Schlicher back in 2004 when he came in looking to get a concealed-carry (license). And other assignments of error had to do with how the investigation was handled and what the jury heard."
But on Aug. 9 the Fourth District Court of Appeals denied all five claims filed in the appeal and affirmed the judgment of the Washington County Common Pleas Court and the jury that convicted Ruble.
"It's important that he is remembered as a murderer and his name doesn't get cleared even after he's dead," said Seevers. "That gives some peace to Clark's family. They have the answers as to what happened."
Ruble's conviction was only achieved in a second jury trial after the first, in October 2015, ended with a hung jury. Seevers said interviews with the jury by his team revealed that while that jury believed without a doubt that Ruble was responsible for Clark's death, they could not decide whether he had actually pulled the trigger.
"That's why we added the aiding and abetting part in the second trial," said Seevers. "So they didn't have to make that call of who actually pulled the trigger."
The question of who actually shot Clark on Feb. 7, 1981, was raised during Ruble's trial when Robert Smithberger testified that he had been at the scene of the crime and had driven the getaway car.
To read the full judgment contact the Washington County Sheriff's Office.