Criminal Justice
Divorce lawyer accused of involvement in fatal stabbing of client because he wanted trial delay
A former Ohio lawyer has been charged in connection with the fatal stabbing of his divorce client outside his Cleveland office in March 2013. (Image from Shutterstock)
A former Ohio lawyer has been charged in connection with the fatal stabbing of his divorce client outside his Cleveland office in March 2013, a crime said to have been orchestrated because the attorney wanted to delay the client’s trial.
Former lawyer Gregory Joseph Moore, 51, of Ohio was accused of murder and a conspiracy to kidnap and to harm or kill the divorce client, Aliza Sherman, a nurse at the Cleveland Clinic, according to the indictment and a May 2 press release by the Cuyahoga County, Ohio, prosecutor’s office. Moore was arrested in Texas on Friday.
Moore arranged for Sherman to meet him at his law office in downtown Cleveland on a Sunday. While she was waiting to get into the locked building, “an individual who was either Moore or an unknown co-conspirator” approached Sherman, chased her and then stabbed her more than 10 times, the indictment says.
Publications covering the charges include NBC News, Cleveland.com, News 5 Cleveland WEWS and WKYC.
The charges against Moore are aggravated murder, conspiracy, murder and kidnapping.
Moore disconnected his phone from the Verizon cellular network for about three hours on the day in question to avoid cell tower location evidence, the indictment says. He couldn’t make and receive calls during this time, but he was able to send and receive text messages, likely by using his law firm’s mobile hot spot. During this time, Sherman asked Moore when he would arrive, and Moore responded, “Been here.”
Sherman sent two more texts asking when Moore would let her in before she was stabbed. After the assault, Moore continued texting Sherman asking where she was. The texts were intended to crease false evidence suggesting that Moore was unaware of the assault, the indictment says.
The next day, someone from Moore’s law office tried to cancel the mobile hot spot from the firm’s business account, the indictment says.
Moore was an associate at the firm now known as the Stafford Law Co., according to the press release.
Moore resigned from the bar in 2018 while facing potential discipline following his guilty pleas in two cases. One accused Moore of inducing panic by calling in courthouse bomb threats on days that his clients were scheduled for trial. The other accused him of falsification for providing false information to police investigating Sherman’s murder.
See also:
Lawyer accused of sending false texts to client who was stabbed outside his office
Feds raid family law firm linked to both slain woman and attorney accused of bomb threat
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