Accused killer seeking funds for PI

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

A man accused of shooting and killing his girlfriend in Van Wert last September is now seeking funds to hire a private investigator.

Defense attorney Zachary Maisch filed the motion on Monday on behalf of Ryan Houser, 38, who has addresses in Rockford and Celina.

“Through the review of discovery materials, the defendant has already identified at least two other potential individuals with motive to commit the alleged crimes herein,” Maisch wrote in the motion. “Additionally, there are other potential witnesses the defense wishes to seek out and interview that law enforcement appears to never have contacted.”

Maisch also wrote that he has contacted Ben Seabolt of Seabolt Investigations of Sugar Grove, Ohio for a quote. Seabolt is a retired Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper and is now a licensed private investigator who charges $150 an hour and Maisch is seeking up to $5,000 to pay Seabolt.

“The defendant is facing the potential of a prison term of life without parole and therefore the expenditure of these funds is minuscule when compared to the potential sentence,” Maisch wrote.

Van Wert County Prosecutor Eva Yarger has until Monday, June 24, to respond to the request. Van Wert County Common Pleas Court Judge Martin Burchfield will decide whether or not to grant the request.

In addition to the request for funds, a ruling is pending from a suppression hearing held on May 6. At the hearing, Maisch claimed Houser was never given a Miranda warning during several interviews with law enforcement officers, and he asked Judge Burchfield to suppress multiple statements solicited from Houser by law enforcement officers on different occasions during the investigation. Yarger and two Van Wert detectives, Lt. Rob Black and Sgt. Brock Blackmore refuted the claims.

Houser is charged with aggravated murder, an unclassified felony; murder, an unclassified felony; possessing a weapon under disability, a third degree felony, and tampering with evidence, a third degree felony. The charges are tied to the death of Barbara Ganger. He is accused of fatally shooting Ganger, 43, at Van Wert West Apartments on September 3. Her body was discovered a day later, after the Van Wert Police Department was contacted to do a welfare check. Officers discovered she had been shot twice, once in the stomach area and once in the head.

Houser was arrested and jailed in Mercer County on September 8 on unrelated charges of having a weapon under disability and a probation/parole violation. He was indicted by a Van Wert County grand jury November 2, and pleaded not guilty during an arraignment hearing held several days later. He remains in jail in lieu of $1 million bond.

Houser was originally scheduled to stand trial the week of April 15. A new trial date has not been set.