Latest news with #AlizaSherman
CBS News
3 days ago
- General
- CBS News
Ohio divorce lawyer accused of fatally stabbing client pleads not guilty
An Ohio divorce attorney accused of fatally stabbing a client more than a decade ago in a plot to delay her trial pleaded not guilty Wednesday to aggravated murder and kidnapping charges. Bail was set at $2 million for Gregory J. Moore, 51, who is also charged with murder and conspiracy in the 2013 death of Aliza Sherman, who was stabbed more than 10 times. Her body was found on a downtown Cleveland sidewalk near where she was set to meet Moore to discuss her divorce the day before the trial was scheduled to begin. Bail was set at the request of his defense lawyers, who argued Moore was not a flight risk. Moore — who already has served jail time for lying to police during the investigation into Sherman's death — was indicted earlier this month and was arrested by U.S. marshals in Texas, where he had been visiting his terminally ill father. He then waived extradition during a May 8 hearing and was returned to Ohio. According to the indictment, Moore allegedly planned to kidnap Sherman as a delay tactic for her upcoming divorce trial. Court documents included messages between Moore and Sherman showing how he called her to the office, which was locked. She arrived and waited more than an hour before deciding to return to her car, according to the indictment. "During this timeframe, an individual who was either Moore or an unknown co-conspirator approached Sherman … circled behind her, chased her … and then stabbed her over 10 times," the indictment reads. Moore swiped into the office later that evening and messaged Sherman to mislead investigators, according to the indictment. Moore was not a stranger to authorities before the stabbing occurred. In 2017, he pleaded guilty to falsification for statements he made to police about his whereabouts during Sherman's killing. He also admitted to calling in bomb threats in 2012 as a way to delay trials. His law license was suspended in 2017 and he resigned it the following year. He served six months in jail. At the time, he said that he regretted his past actions. Sherman, 53, was a mother of four and has been remembered as a beloved fertility nurse. Rallies and vigils to honor her memory have been held on the anniversary of her death.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Couple enter guilty pleas in animal abuse case: I-Team
[Attached video: Previous I-Team coverage of the story] CLEVELAND (WJW) — Two defendants entered guilty pleas Wednesday to a charge of cruelty against companion animals, also known as Goddard's Law. Bond set at $2 million as Aliza Sherman's alleged killer appears in court: I-Team Dazia Chuppa and Trevonte Epps entered the pleas during a hearing in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Police say the two failed to take care of a dog, named Duke, that was in their custody. The dog was found on Jan. 4 in Euclid. Duke was chained in a garage and had no food or water., police reports state. The two defendants told police the dog did not belong to them but had been in their garage for a few months. Humane agents rushed him to a veterinarian, but due to his critical condition, officials say Duke had to be euthanized. How to submit a public comment on Ohio's E-Check Ease Act More than a dozen animal activists held signs outside and inside the Cuyahoga County Justice Center during every pretrial. The protesters demanding justice for Duke. Chuppa and Epps are scheduled to be sentenced at 9 a.m. June 12. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
New York Times
3 days ago
- General
- New York Times
Lawyer Murdered Client in 2013 to Delay Start of Her Divorce Trial, Prosecutors Say
A former Ohio divorce lawyer has been charged with murder and kidnapping in the fatal stabbing of a client in what prosecutors called a brutal scheme to obstruct the start of her divorce trial. The former lawyer, Gregory J. Moore, lured his client, Aliza Sherman, a 53-year-old in vitro fertilization nurse and mother of four from Beachwood, Ohio, to his office in downtown Cleveland on March 24, 2013, a day before her divorce trial was set to begin, prosecutors said. As Ms. Sherman waited outside Mr. Moore's office building, he or someone working with him stabbed her more than 10 times, prosecutors said. Ms. Sherman was pronounced dead at a hospital later that day. Mr. Moore, 51, had intended to kidnap Ms. Sherman to prevent the judge in her divorce case from conducting the trial, prosecutors said. The goal was to have Ms. Sherman be 'unavailable to attend the proceedings due to serious physical harm and/or death,' according to a grand jury indictment issued this month. The indictment did not explain why the authorities believe that he wanted the trial delayed. But prosecutors said that Mr. Moore had also sought to avoid court dates by feigning illnesses, getting into a car crash and calling in bomb threats to courthouses in 2012. In 2017, he was sentenced to six months in jail on charges related to those bomb threats and for having lied to the police during the investigation into Ms. Sherman's death. In June 2021, agents from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation received a request to lead the cold-case investigation into Ms. Sherman's death and then spent 'thousands of hours applying advanced technology and implementing investigative techniques to help solve this homicide,' Ohio's attorney general, Dave Yost, said in a statement. Federal marshals arrested Mr. Moore in Texas on May 2, 2025, after an Ohio grand jury indicted him on charges of murder, conspiracy and kidnapping in Ms. Sherman's death. Appearing via video link in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court on Wednesday, Mr. Moore pleaded not guilty. A judge set bond at $2 million after Ms. Sherman's daughter, Jennifer Rivchun, told the court that the family had waited 12 excruciating years for justice. 'Greg Moore stands before this court charged with the kidnapping and murder of our mother, his own client, a woman who trusted him, a woman who he was duty bound to protect and advocate for,' Ms. Rivchun said. 'Instead, he allegedly betrayed that trust in the most horrifying way imaginable.' A Cuyahoga County prosecutor, Kevin Filiatraut, said in court that the same evidence showing that Mr. Moore had planned and then tried to cover up the kidnapping and killing of Ms. Sherman also clears her estranged husband, who died last year and had been widely thought to have been involved. Mr. Moore's lawyer, Jon Paul Rion, said that Mr. Moore intended to fight the charges and that he had 'much to say in his own defense.' Mr. Rion questioned whether investigators had turned up any new evidence implicating Mr. Moore in Ms. Sherman's murder. 'It appears to be the same evidence that they didn't have 12 years ago that they're just repeating again,' Mr. Rion told reporters. According to the indictment, Mr. Moore texted Ms. Sherman on March 24, 2013, to meet him at his law office. But Mr. Moore never actually intended to meet with her, the indictment states. Instead, it says, he disconnected his phone from the Verizon cellular network to prevent it from leaving cell-tower location evidence and used a mobile hot spot to text Ms. Sherman and keep her waiting outside his office. As she stood outside, a person who was 'either Moore or an unknown co-conspirator' approached Ms. Sherman, circled behind her, chased her and then stabbed her repeatedly before running away, the indictment states. After the assailant was out of the view of surveillance cameras, Mr. Moore texted Ms. Sherman asking where she was, whether she was going to meet with him and for her to call him, the indictment states. The texts were intended to make it appear as if Mr. Moore were unaware that she had been attacked, the indictment states. Mr. Moore then went inside his law office and reconnected his phone to the Verizon cellular network and called Ms. Sherman three times to continue to create the impression that he was unaware she had been assaulted, the indictment states. The next day, an employee at Mr. Moore's law office tried to cancel the mobile hot spot and deleted a voice mail message that Ms. Sherman had left from a call box outside the building, the indictment states. Twenty-one minutes of video footage from inside the building also disappeared, Mr. Filiatraut said in court. In urging the court not to release Mr. Moore while his trial is pending, Ms. Sherman's daughter, Ms. Rivchun, said his actions indicated that he was 'a threat to the moral fabric of our society.' 'Greg Moore is reckless, unpredictable and capable of taking extreme measures to fulfill his evil agenda,' she said. 'We cannot take that risk. My mother deserved better. This community deserves better. And justice demands better.'
Associated Press
3 days ago
- General
- Associated Press
Ohio divorce lawyer pleads not guilty in 2013 fatal stabbing of client
CLEVELAND (AP) — An Ohio divorce attorney accused of fatally stabbing a client more than a decade ago in a plot to delay her trial pleaded not guilty Wednesday to aggravated murder and kidnapping charges. Bail was set at $2 million for Gregory J. Moore, 51, who is also charged with murder and conspiracy in the 2013 death of Aliza Sherman, who was stabbed more than 10 times. Her body was found on a downtown Cleveland sidewalk near where she was set to meet Moore to discuss her divorce the day before the trial was scheduled to begin. Bail was set at the request of his defense lawyers, who argued Moore was not a flight risk. Moore — who already has served jail time for lying to police during the investigation into Sherman's death — was indicted earlier this month and was arrested by U.S. marshals in Texas, where he had been visiting his terminally ill father. He then waived extradition during a May 8 hearing and was returned to Ohio. According to the indictment, Moore allegedly planned to kidnap Sherman as a delay tactic for her upcoming divorce trial. Court documents included messages between Moore and Sherman showing how he called her to the office, which was locked. She arrived and waited more than an hour before deciding to return to her car, according to the indictment. 'During this timeframe, an individual who was either Moore or an unknown co-conspirator approached Sherman … circled behind her, chased her … and then stabbed her over 10 times,' the indictment reads. Moore swiped into the office later that evening and messaged Sherman to mislead investigators, according to the indictment. Moore was not a stranger to authorities before the stabbing occurred. In 2017, he pleaded guilty to falsification for statements he made to police about his whereabouts during Sherman's killing. He also admitted to calling in bomb threats in 2012 as a way to delay trials. His law license was suspended in 2017 and he resigned it the following year. He served six months in jail. At the time, he said that he regretted his past actions. Sherman, 53, was a mother of four and has been remembered as a beloved fertility nurse. Rallies and vigils to honor her memory have been held on the anniversary of her death.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Yahoo
I-Team: Thousands of hours of investigative work, new technology led to arrest in Aliza Sherman case
CLEVELAND (WJW) — The state attorney general told the FOX 8 I-Team that more than 6,000 hours of work and new technology led agents with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation to file charges in the murder case of Aliza Sherman. On Monday, Attorney General Dave Yost said the alleged killer, former divorce attorney Gregory Moore, left an electronic trail. Skeletal remains found in Akron identified as 22-year-old man who went missing in 2024 'We were able to create a geospatial map with geography and time and it led to the truth that had long been obscured,' Yost said. 'We have been learning as law enforcement how to use these kinds of records. Also, part of it is just the sheer ability to analyze it. The analytical tools in 2025 are very different than they were in 2013.' Sherman was murdered in March 2013 outside her attorney's office in downtown Cleveland. The case remained unsolved for 12 years. Yost said that this was a massive case for BCI. He said agents started investigating the case in 2021, at the request of Cleveland police. On Friday, Moore was secretly indicted by a Cuyahoga County grand jury on several charges, including aggravated murder, conspiracy and kidnapping. 'The purpose of Aliza Sherman's kidnapping was to obstruct Judge Rosemary Grdina Gold from conducting the trial in the divorce case of Sanford Sherman v. Aliza Sherman,' the indictment states. 'The scheme to use telecommunications devices and/or services to kidnap Aliza Sherman began on or about January 3, 2013, when Gregory Moore and at least one other unnamed individual learned that the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office ('CCPO') was investigating Moore's cell phone usage in 2012 when bomb threats were called into courthouses where Moore was scheduled to be in trial. The bomb threats on January 18, 2012, May 30, 2012, July 10, 2012, were part of a pattern of behavior Moore exhibited to delay court appearances he was scheduled to attend in the calendar year of 2012, a pattern that members of Stafford Law Co. were aware of on January 3, 2013, and which continued from January 3 up to and including March 24, 2013. Within a day of when Moore and said other individual(s) learned of the CCPO investigation, Moore obtained a new cellular phone on the Stafford Law Verizon business account and was given control of a 4G Mobile Broadband device ('mobile hot spot') that was also on the Stafford Law Verizon business account by an individual with authority to make such changes to devices on the firm's account. This change to the mobile hot spot facilitated Moore's ability to perform the overt acts in furtherance of the kidnapping of Aliza Sherman in a manner calculated to avoid detection by law enforcement.' Authorities said the motive for the murder was that Moore was not prepared for Aliza Sherman's divorce trial. In 2016, the I-Team questioned Moore about the murder, asking if he was prepared to take her divorce case to trial. He declined to answer. 'They had billed $100,000 on this divorce case and the trial date had been moved several times previously and it wasn't likely to be moved again,' Yost said. 'He wasn't ready to go to trial.' The indictment further notes that either Moore or 'an unknown co-conspirator approached Sherman from E. 12 St., circled behind her, chased her from 55 Erieview to 75 Erieview, and then stabbed her over ten times.' Moore was arrested near Austin, Texas, on Friday, at a relative's home. He is being held in jail in Texas and is expected to have an extradition hearing soon. A date for that hearing has not yet been set. Cuyahoga County officials said once he is brought back to Ohio, he will be in court to face to the murder charges. Suspect stabbed woman, ordered pit bull to attack Jan Lash, one of Sherman's good friends, said she was stunned to learn an arrest had finally been made. 'Personally, I thought there would have been an arrest right away,' Lash told the I-Team on Monday. 'So I'm looking forward to hearing the truth and getting my questions answered. There's so much that doesn't make sense. That doesn't change the fact my best friend isn't here.' BCI agents searched Moore's Summit County home on Friday. Yost said agents are still working with the Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office on the case. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
