October 21, 2004

Rittenhouse murder trial postponed until May 16

By Diane Chiddister

The trial of Michael Rittenhouse, scheduled last month to begin Oct. 25, has been postponed until spring.

Last week the Rittenhouse trial was officially rescheduled to begin May 16, according to Jon Paul Rion, Rittenhouse’s attorney. Rion said that both he and the Greene County Prosecutor’s office agreed to the change.

In September the Greene County Grand Jury indicted Rittenhouse for aggravated murder, with a death penalty specification, for the alleged murder of Timothy Lopez, who vanished in January 2002. Lopez’s remains were found in the Rittenhouse backyard in February 2004. When Lopez disappeared, both he and Rittenhouse were seniors at Yellow Springs High School.

If convicted of aggravated murder, Rittenhouse could face the death penalty, life in jail with no parole, or 25 to 30 years in prison with the possibility of parole. He is also charged with aggravated robbery, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years, and with abuse of a corpse, which carries a sentence of up to 12 months in jail.

At his arraignment on Sept. 22, Rittenhouse pleaded not guilty. Rion has stated that his client acted in self-defense following an attempted robbery. Since February, Rittenhouse has been housed in the Greene County Jail.

The amount of time between the indictment and the May trial is a normal span of time for a death penalty case, according to Rion.

“In a case such as this there are a series of motions that need to be heard to determine if the charges are appropriate,” said Rion, who also stated that the expanded time frame is necessary so that “all the constitutional issues can be heard and debated. The scrutiny the court has to apply in a case such as this is much higher.”

Rittenhouse had a choice between being tried by a jury or by a three-judge panel, and chose a trial by jury, Rion said.

“We believe the people of Greene County would be best served to hear the facts of the case and believe a jury of one’s peers is crucial to due process,” he said.