MISTY FISHER MURDER
Federal judge orders new trial for convicted killer of Oregon teenager 
Jamie Madrigal was convicted.
| By MARK REITER
BLADE STAFF WRITER A federal judge has ordered that death-row inmate Jamie Madrigal receive a new trial for the murder of 18-year-old Misty Fisher, an Oregon high school student who was shot in the head during a 1996 restaurant robbery because witnesses said she was too nervous to open a safe fast enough to suit her killer.
A senior and a band member at Clay High School, Miss Fisher worked as an assistant manager at the former KFC restaurant at South Avenue and the Anthony Wayne Trail in Toledo when she was killed on April 12, 1996. She was on her knees - scared and trying to open the safe - when the gunman became impatient and shot her execution-style, witnesses testified during a three-week trial in Lucas County Common Pleas Court.
Madrigal, then 21, was found guilty of aggravated murder and aggravated robbery by a jury that later deliberated only one hour before recommending he be given the death penalty. He was sentenced to death by Judge Judith Lanzinger, and is on death row at the Mansfield Correctional Institution. 
Misty Fisher, an Oregon high school student, was shot in the head during a 1996 restaurant robbery.
| However, U.S. District Judge James S. Gwin of Akron ruled Tuesday that the jury should not have heard statements given to police by Madrigal’s getaway driver, Chris Cathcart, in which he implicated Madrigal as the gunman.
Cathcart, then 23, told police that he waited in a car while Madrigal entered the KFC, and that Madrigal returned with a bag of money. But Cathcart refused to testify at the trial, forcing prosecutors to submit the statement as evidence at the trial.
Cathcart later pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and involuntary manslaughter. Currently serving a 10 to 28-year sentence in the Lima Correctional Institution, Cathcart, now 30, will be eligible to go before the Ohio Parole Board next year.
In 2000, the Ohio Supreme Court threw out Cathcart’s statements as evidence, but upheld Madrigal’s conviction. The justices said admission of the statements was a "harmless error" and ruled that other evidence presented at trial - including testimony from five eyewitnesses - was sufficient to convict him.
On appeal from Madrigal’s attorney, Judge Gwin disagreed with the state Supreme Court over the impact Cathcart’s statements to police may have had on the jurors in their deliberations.
"The court cannot say with any degree of certainty that the trial court’s error in admitting Cathcart’s statements did not have substantial influence on the verdict. At the very least, one is left in grave doubt over whether the statements substantially influenced the jury," the judge wrote in his 106-page opinion.
Ohio Public Defender Jim Payne claimed that the prosecution put a heavy emphasis on Cathcart’s statements in their closing arguments to the jury. Madrigal, he said, did not have the opportunity to cross examine his co-defendant.
"We think it is a very sound decision. The judge does an excellent job of providing ample support for his conclusions,," said Mr. Payne. "We are particularly happy to see prosecutors and the trial court held accountable for when the line of fair play is crossed."
Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates, who was one of the assistant prosecutors handling the case at the time, disputed that assertion last night.
Not only did the prosecution have Cathcart’s statement, she said, but five eyewitnesses, clothing Madrigal was identified as wearing during the robbery, Madrigal’s red Buick used in the robbery, and a gun recovered from Madrigal that was the same as the weapon used in the murder even though no recoverable ballistics evidence could be introduced.
"You’ve got 12 jurors. You’ve got Judge Lanzinger. Then you’ve got the Ohio Supreme Court and the court of appeals. Then it went back to the Ohio Supreme Court. We’ve got all those people scrutinizing this case, and now we have one federal judge who overturns it?" Ms. Bates said.
"Probably the most disturbing thing is that after all that scrutiny by all those courts saying everything was OK, I had to call the father of this young woman today after seven years to tell him this case had been reversed," Ms. Bates said. "He was extremely upset and felt betrayed by the system."
Kim Norris, spokesman for Attorney General Jim Petro, said the office is considering its options in the case as the current responsible prosecution in the case, including an appeal of Judge Gwin’s ruling to the federal 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Ms. Bates said she has offered whatever assistance her office can provide.
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