CLARK COUNTY — The 83-year-old man who was convicted of the 2024 murder of an Uber driver last week has requested a new trial.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 6:00, the attorney for William Brock filed a motion on Tuesday requesting a new trial and an acquittal of his conviction, according to Clark County Common Pleas Court documents.
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As News Center 7 previously reported, a jury found Brock guilty of the murder of Lo-Letha Hall on Jan. 14. He was also convicted of felonious assault and kidnapping.
Brock was scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday, but that will not happen due to the recent filing.
News Center 7’s Mike Campbell spoke with Brock’s attorney, John Paul Rion.
“Obviously, we were surprised by the verdict,” Rion said.
In court documents, Rion claims that there was a clear misinterpretation of Ohio’s Castle Doctrine law and Brock’s self-defense rights.
“The jury was not instructed that they need not deliberate whether the State disproved any element of self-defense when Mr. Brock was presumed to have acted in self-defense,” the filing states. “The jury was not instructed that the State had to prove Ms. Hall was not unlawfully at Mr. Brock’s residence by a preponderance of the evidence in order to rebut the presumption of self-defense.”
Rion doesn’t believe that Brock should have been convicted of murder.
“We thought that these facts were very clear, that Bill Brock was doing nothing except minding his business that morning when his whole life was turned upside down by this scammer,” Rion said.
Rion believes he has solid legal grounds for his appeal of the verdict.
He said the jury had an incorrect interpretation of the law they used to determine the validity of Brock’s self-defense claims.
“What’s now clear is the law includes any covered porch as part of an area of your house or your residence that’s protected,” he said.
Rion included a picture of Brock’s home in the filing.
He said Lo-Letha Hall stepped through one door under the covered porch.
Rion believes that means the Castle Doctrine supports Brock’s claims of self-defense.
News Center 7 reached out to Clark County Prosecutor Dan Driscoll, who believes the jury made the correct decision.
He was not available late Tuesday, but did speak after the verdict last week.
“They looked at the law, and they applied the law, and when they did that, really it was pretty simple,” Driscoll said.
Court records indicate that the judge plans to let the prosecutor’s office respond to this filing before deciding on the next step.
The judge could acquit Brock or order a new trial.
He could also determine that the jury got it right, under the correct interpretation of the law. If that’s the case, Rion would file an appeal in the Ohio Second District Court of Appeals.
News Center 7 will continue to follow this story.
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