GSR ruling made in Houser case
SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor
Van Wert County Common Pleas Court Judge Martin D. Burchfield has ruled that the testimony of a gunshot residue expert may be used during the upcoming trial of a Rockford man charged with killing his girlfriend.
In a written ruling dated Monday, February 3, Judge Burchfield said the testimony of Ted Manasian, a forensic scientist with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, is revelant and admissible in the April trial of Ryan Houser.

“None of the offered testimony raised the specter of the testimony being irrelevant or unfairly prejudicial,” Burchfield wrote. “There is no reason to limit or exclude this testimony and it would appear to be admissible for the proposition Defendant had gun shot residue on his hand when the sample was taken.”
During a hearing held last month, defense attorney Kenneth Rexford questioned the admissibilty of Manasian’s testimony and he previously filed a motion challenging the validity of the gunshot residue test results.
Houser, 39, 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, also a third degree felony. He’s accused of shooting and killing Barbara Ganger, 43, at her W. Main St. apartment in early September, 2023. Her body was discovered after the Van Wert Police Department was dispatched to do a welfare check at her residence at Van Wert West Apartments. Officers discovered she had been shot twice, once in the stomach area and once in the head.
A final pre-trial hearing will be held on March 19, and Houser’s trial is scheduled to run from April 7-15. He was originally scheduled to stand trial last April, but it was delayed due to a series of motions and two changes of legal counsel. He remains in the Van Wert County Correctional Facility in lieu of $1 million bond.
POSTED: 02/04/25 at 9:36 pm. FILED UNDER: News