The Walter Ogrod Case

This is another case that was recommended to me that surprisingly I had never heard of, even considering all of the things that have been in the news the last few months and days. Researching this case also opened the door to several other cases to research as it appears that the current prosecutor in Philadelphia, Larry Krasner, has uncovered “gross misconduct” in many cases that took place in the city. Actually I found my way to an exoneration website and it appears that this is occurring all over the country. Apparently several drug cases out of Chicago have been thrown out and convictions overturned and thrown out due to the misconduct of a police officer who was found to have doctors results.

It is not exactly clear what happened to cause Krasner to look into past cases but I have to say that he is looking to be one of the “good guys.” I can only imagine the gruff he is likely taking however. A new division has been created called The Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) and they have been looking into many cases. It was said that the bulk of these cases were investigated by two, now retired, investigators, Marty Devlin and Paul Worrell. Devlin was nicknamed “Detective Perfect” for his claim of solving 95% of cases, almost exclusively through confessions it seemed. There was also talk of prosecutorial misconduct but as of yet I have been unable to determine who the prosecutor was in this case, or the other cases and if it was the same prosecutor.

To be fair, this blog will not have a lot of information not just about the trials that Walter Ogrod faced in the early 1990's but of the initial crime itself either. It is not because I do not want to provide that information but mainly because it seems to have been buried quite a bit because of all of the new information that has come out. I will also apologize now that within this blog you will likely see me go off on a tangent, one I will attempt to keep at bay as much as possible, but I cannot promise anything. One of the things that completely struck me about this case was how COVID-19 was addressed not just with Ogrod, but in the prison system itself. As I have recently revealed my husband is currently in federal prison and while we on the outside have been so concerned about the spread of the virus, prisons are breeding grounds for COVID-19. If you are interested in understanding more about that you can go here:

https://truecrimediscussions.blogspot.com/2020/04/why-our-prisons-are-breeding-grounds.html That being said, I will attempt to start this as I try to do with most cases and discuss the crime that was committed.

On the afternoon of July 12, 1988 four year old Barbara Jean Horn was in her yard playing. It was about three in the afternoon. Her mother, Sharon Fahy was at work and her stepfather was in the house but when he went to check on her she was gone. He searched for her and talked to neighbors but she could not be found and he called the police. It is not clear how soon Barbara was found but she was eventually. Her body was found naked and “battered” wrapped in a plastic bag and stuffed in the box for a television. For some reason I did not write down the size of the box in my notes as I only saw it referenced once but I believe it was for a 13” box television so not one of the thin, long ones we see now. Her body, in the box, was placed next to trash cans on a street a few blocks from her home. I never saw anything about the residents of the home in which the box was found or if it was even occupied at the time. It was said that four or five people witnesses a man with the television box but there was not a lot of information about them and what I did find will be discussed later.

Apparently the case went cold and then in 1992 investigators, Devlin and Worrell as lead investigators, began talking to all of the neighbors again. Walter Ogrod was about twenty-seven years old (about twenty-three in 1988) and working at a bakery as a delivery man. There is not a lot of information as far as his IQ or his mental ability other than to say that that he “is on the autism spectrum.” It was said that after fourteen hours of questioning and more than thirty-six hours of no sleep Walter confessed to the murder of Barbara Jean Horn.

In his confession Walter stated that he had lured Barbara with candy to come to the basement of his home, across the street from hers. He claimed that he attempted to sexually assault her and then he hit her over the head with a “weight bar.” There seemed to be little information released, or that I could find about how he allegedly got her out of his house, into the box and a few blocks away.

Walter had two trials. His first trial was in October of 1993. The defense argued that the confession was coerced and pointed out that by the time Walter was given his first call he was already telling people the confession was false. It has been said that the prosecution had not released information to the defense either at this trial, or the next apparently, that may have been able to allow them to show that facts in the confession did not match the crime, but again I will get into that in a bit because it plays into what would happen more than two decades later. At the end of the trial the jury had rendered a verdict. They had decided to find Walter not-guilty but apparently while the verdict was being read one of the jurors announced that they had changed their mind and the judge was forced to declare a mistrial.

Walter's second trial would take place almost exactly three years later in October of 1996. At this point the prosecutor had gotten at least one jail informant to testify. Some reports say that there were two but most indicate there was only one and he was infamous for being an informant, he had even been give the nickname “The Monsignor.” This man, John Hall, would tell the jury that Walter had confessed to him while in prison. Once again it seems the defense argued coercion and the prosecutor left things and hid things that could have helped the defense. On October 8, 1996 Walter was convicted of murder and the following day his sentence was set at death.

Over the years his appeals and other motions were denied. It appears that there had been an argument over time about DNA and testing. One thing that always bugs me about some of these cases is when the defense asks for DNA that either had never been done or was inconclusive previously and new methods could clarify and the prosecutor fights to not allow it. My opinion is that DNA will either prove what they have known all along, or it will show a mistake was made and an innocent person was convicted. And yet prosecutors still fight this over and over. That appears to be the case here.

Then in April of 2018 prosecutor Larry Krasner announced that Walter's conviction would be reviewed. He also stated that the prosecutors office would no longer prevent DNA testing, including fingernail scrapings that had been preserved. It would still take more than a year and a half before those DNA results would be released to the public. In the meantime the CIU was looking at the case also. In January 2020 Krasner announced that DNA results had “definitively” excluded Walter. The CIU chief, Patricia Cummings, also released their results. She announced that the evidence presented in this case was “false, unreliable and incomplete.” Cummings went on to say that this case was “a gross miscarriage of justice” that was riddled with “police and prosecutorial misconduct” that included “junk science,” a false informant testimony and the hiding of evidence. Krasner filed a motion in conjunction with the defense asking that Walter's conviction be overturned and charges dismissed. The hearing was finally set for March 27, 2020 but then the nation was taken over by the COVID-19 pandemic.

But before I get into that I am going to address a few other things. Remember I discussed earlier that there were apparently four or five witnesses seeing a man with the television box that Barbara's body was found? It appears that all of those witnesses had always claimed that Walter was not the man they saw. Now, whether that information was presented to the defense, or whether they testified at either trial is unclear. In 2018 a documentary called “Snitch” was released and this case was discussed. The show states that a man by the name of Raymond Sheehan was convicted in 2003 for the 1987 rape and strangulation of a ten year old girl. The producers have argued that these witnesses who claimed to see the man with the television box have identified Sheehan as that man. Also remember I said there was evidence that was hidden? Well apparently at least some of that evidence revolved around the fact that the coroner in the case had determined that Barbara's cause of death was asphyxiation and did not indicate any traumatic head injuries. This goes against how Walter stated he allegedly murdered her. Sharon Fahy, Barbara's mother, released a statement during some of this time. She stated, “I am sad and angry to find out thirty-two years later that key evidence was withheld from me, my family, and the courts. My daughter is never coming home but I wanted justice for her, not simply a closed case with an innocent person in jail.” I am unsure if her reference to “key evidence” revolved solely around the cause of death or if there were other issues that I never came across.

In mid-March Walter Ogrod began having symptoms of the Coronavirus. It was said that he had a fever that got as high as 106 degrees and he began having issue breathing. He would later say that it felt like he was trying to breathe “through a sponge.” He apparently had attempted to get medical attention and while he was tested for the flu and the results were negative but the prison would not test him for COVID-19. Walter's lawyer filed an emergency hearing through the courts that were running on limited conditions to force the prison to have him tested and treated if necessary. On March 21^st a judge did just that. The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections was ordered to transport him to a local hospital to be tested and treated. Instead of doing so the prison responded with a response from their attorney claiming that the judge did not have jurisdiction to make that order. I should point out that Pennsylvania is one of the four Commonwealth states and run things a bit differently. There was no real information as to why this seemed to be the case but apparently after review, three days after he ordered the treatment the judge relented stating that the attorney had been correct and he had could not order the prison to treat Walter. The very same day the prison released a statement that they were complying with CDC rules and claimed they had no cases of COVID-19 and “we have no inmates suspected of COVID at this time.” Well this was obviously blatantly false, at least the latter part. The first part where they said they did not have any cases was probably true on the surface since they were refusing to test for the virus. This is where my tangent begins!

First, I am completely appalled that by the end of March there were still prisons refusing to test for COVID-19. Secondly, while I have seen claims even today in June of 2020 that particular prisons have no cases I believe that to be false also. While some facilities have been forced “to come clean” it seems others have fallen below the radar and able to pretend that while near everyone in this country has been exposed, that nursing homes and prison were not the number one places affected. Now, this being said, it does not mean that I believe the numbers that prisons have released as far as numbers, both of their affected or recovered or as the number of inmates they have released. I have it on pretty good authority that those numbers are decreased or increased to make the systems appear to be accountable without really doing much else. I can tell you that the prison in which my husband is located have moved inmates around allegedly based on positive tests but I also know that proper clean and distance are not adhered to so while they move positives out of one section and place them together there is no effort to clean the area or move people before more are moved in. You often hear people in the general public talk about how inmates get “free” medical, well it barely qualifies as medical in what they receive. Secondly, while Walter's case was a bit different as he was on death row and presumably a maximum security prison it is the low security prisons that are having the most issue with COVID as there is no such thing as social distancing when there are 250 people living in one room together. But, the saddest part of all of this is that not only did a judge have to step in to ORDER the prison to give medical care to an inmate, they still refused arguing the judge did not have standing to do so. No one should have had to order them in the first place.... end rant!

So COVID delayed any hearing on Walter's case and he did not get into court until June 5,2020 and even still, while today he is no longer in prison, things are not settled. The courts had plenty of time to make sure the case saw the right court that would allow them to overturn Walter's conviction and dismiss the case against him. But, the judge that heard the case on June 5^th claimed that while she could overturn the conviction she did not have the ability to dismiss the case. The best she was able to do was drop the charges to 3^rd degree murder which allowed Walter to be eligible for bail that was set and paid on that day. He will still have to wait to get into the proper court to have the case dismissed. It is said that Walter will likely be the 169^th person exonerated from death row since 1973 but that number will depend on how fast they see the proper judge.

With all of the “noise” this case has made over recent weeks and days it was difficult to get a lot of information about the core issue, the murder of Barbara Jean Horn. Prosecutor Larry Krasner has not revealed if the DNA revealed the identity of another suspect or if anyone else, including Raymond Sheehan is being pursued.

Before I end this I wanted to point a few more things out. As I stated earlier the name of the prosecutor in this case, and presumably others proved difficult to impossible to find. That being said, it is only on the rare occasion have I seen charges brought against a prosecutor for misconduct. It is not unheard of but generally some loophole somewhere cannot prove that the misconduct was purposeful and intentional so not only is little done when others believe it can be proven, it is rarely taken to court. Then there is Marty Devlin and Paul Worrell. They were only described as “now retired” detectives but then I did a search on them. I did not find anything on Worrell, but I did find a little on Devlin. Neither man have commented about any cases apparently, even after Krasner specifically stated in October of 2019 that many of their cases in particular were being reviewed. I did find an article written in 2014 that Camden County had established a new Cold Case Squad. A previous group had been disbanded a few years prior due to budget cuts. But apparently Devlin had come out to join this new team. He was sixty-nine years old and quoted as saying “My goal is to be the oldest (expletive) to ever lock up a murder.” Sweet isn't it?? We can only hope that if his age had not prevented him from continuing then the investigation into his previous cases and tactics have.