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Clermont County judge’s error led to murder conviction being overturned

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Clermont County judge’s error led to murder conviction being overturned

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A man being punished For fatally stabbing his mother in their Miami Township home and later attacking police with a kitchen knifeDue to the judge’s mistake, the convictions and sentence were overturned.

Joshua Amburgy, 41, returned to Clermont County Common Pleas Court from jail on Friday. He had previously pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and aggravated assault and was sentenced to at least 41 years to life in prison.

But Ohio’s 12th Circuit Court of Appeals found in October that Judge Victor Haddad failed to advise Amburgy of his constitutional rights at his plea hearing last year.

The three-judge appeals court panel ultimately invalidated Amburgy’s guilty plea and sent the case back to Haddad’s courtroom.

“I make excuses but that’s why I forgot to do what I was supposed to do because I let you lead me astray. Don’t lead me astray anymore,” Haddad said of the multiple outbursts at Amburgy. The judge threatened to gag her during Friday’s hearing.

“I should at least deserve a chance,” Amburgy said in court. “I am not a threat to society.”

Angela Glaser, an attorney recently appointed to represent Amburgy, declined to comment on the case Friday because she has not yet met with her client.

What happened to Melissa Amburgy?

When Miami Township police arrived at the Valencia Drive home of 58-year-old Melissa Amburgy on Nov. 1, 2022, officers found him in the basement with multiple stab woundsProsecutors said in court filings.

Ted Amburgy, Joshua Amburgy’s husband and father, told police that he and his wife were hanging murals when Joshua Amburgy tried to get him to meet his mother upstairs several times.

When Melissa Amburgy refused, her son went downstairs and stabbed her seven times with a knife he took from the family’s kitchen, prosecutors said.

Ted Amburgy, who witnessed the stabbing, intervened by hitting his son with a chair.

“I fought; “I’ve traveled all over the world, but I’ve never seen someone’s eyes like this,” he said during his son’s sentencing. “I could see in his eyes that the devil was taking over.”

Joshua Amburgy then ran away from the house with a knife in his hand, but facing the police a short time later in the backyard of a residence on Geneva Court.

Prosecutors said police were forced to shoot Amburgy in the leg after he disobeyed multiple commands to drop the gun and attacked them.

Body camera footage of the incident shows there were approximately 12 seconds between officers’ first conversation with Amburgy and the shooting.

Police recovered the knife Amburgy used to stab his mother, as well as a larger, butcher-style knife, from his pocket. Meanwhile, Melissa Amburgy was taken by helicopter to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where she later died.

In an interview with investigators, Joshua Amburgy said he was angry at his mother before stabbing her and that he probably would have attacked her anyway if she had gone upstairs as he asked, according to court records.

According to prosecutors, he constantly claimed that Melissa Amburgy was trying to catch him.

Prosecutors said Amburgy tried for a month to buy a gun as he planned to kill his mother, then gave up and bought a large kitchen knife at a local dollar store, but that knife ultimately went unused.

Amburgy will be held without bail until trial

Amburgy’s lawyers said they would likely seek an evaluation of his competency. Court records show his competency was previously questioned but was eventually deemed fit to stand trial.

Haddad ordered Amburgy imprisoned without bail pending the outcome of the criminal case.

Amburgy is being held in the Clermont County Jail, records show. He is expected to appear in court again on Wednesday.

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