Deadline given for final motions in case

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

Ryan Houser, the Rockford man charged with shooting and killing his girlfriend in September of 2023 made a brief appearance in Van Wert County Common Pleas Court Monday morning.

Before the pre-trial hearing, the prosecution and defense met behind closed doors with Judge Martin Burchfield. An Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification agent from Bowling Green was in the 90-minute meeting as well.

After the closed door meeting, Houser was brought into the courtroom for the hearing. Judge Burchfield granted a request for $2,000 to pay an expert witness to assist, advise and possibly testify on behalf of Houser regarding the time of death in the case. During the five minute hearing, Judge Burchfield also approved a request by defense attorney Kenneth Rexford to withdraw all other pending motions in the case, and he agreed to stipulate to Houser’s prior drug conviction. He gave both sides 30 days to file any additional motions.

Trial dates were not established. The next pre-trial hearing, presumed to be the final one, will be held at 8:30 a.m. Friday, November 22. The trial was originally scheduled for mid-April but was delayed by two changes of legal counsel and numerous motions.

Houser is facing four charges – 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 connected to the death of Barbara Ganger. Houser is accused of fatally shooting Ganger, 43, at Van Wert West Apartments on W. Main St. September 3, 2023. She had been shot twice, once in the stomach and once in the head. Her body was discovered a day later, after the Van Wert Police Department was contacted to do a welfare check.

Houser was arrested and jailed in Mercer County on September 8, 2023 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.