Houser wants to withdraw no contest plea

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

It’s a case that dates back to September, 2023, one that has been marked with several delays and Wednesday morning, there was another unexpected delay.

Ryan Houser, 39, of Rockford was scheduled to be sentenced in Van Wert County Common Pleas Court on a charge of murder. However, as the hearing began, through his attorney, Kenneth Rexford of Lima, Houser proclaimed his innocence and requested that his no contest plea be withdrawn.

Rexford told Judge Martin D. Burchfield that he learned of Houser’s request just 15-20 minutes before the hearing was scheduled to begin. He also said there’s a case on point but he wasn’t prepared to argue it on such short notice. After a brief recess, Judge Burchfield scheduled a hearing for 10 a.m. Thursday, May 22, to further address Houser’s request.

Houser changed his plea in early March from not guilty to no contest to a single count of murder, an unclassified felony. In exchange, three other charges – aggravated murder, an unclassified felony, possessing a weapon under disability, and tampering with evidence, both third degree felonies, were dismissed by Van Wert County Prosecutor Eva Yarger. After entering the plea, Judge Martin D. Burchfield found him guilty of the charge and scheduled sentencing for May 7.

“We had a trial scheduled, everyone was prepared and ready to go, a plea was entered and now we have this last minute assertion of actual innocence after no contest, so we need to deal with this,” Judge Burchfield said after the brief recess. “The Supreme Court requires us to deal with it and we need to be prepared to on May 22. There will be no continuances.”

Houser is facing a mandatory sentence of 15 years to life without the possibility of an early release on the murder charge.

The charges filed against him are tied to the September, 2023, shooting death of his girlfriend, Barbara Ganger of Van Wert. Her body was discovered on September 4, 2023, after the Van Wert Police Department was dispatched to do a welfare check at her residence at Van Wert West Apartments on W. Main St. 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, 2023, on unrelated charges of having a weapon under disability. Court records show he entered a guilty plea last week and was sentenced to time already served.

He was indicted by a Van Wert County grand jury November 2, 2023, and pleaded not guilty during an arraignment hearing held several days later. Houser has been in jail in lieu of $1 million bond since his arrest.

Houser was originally scheduled to stand trial in April of 2024, but his case was delayed multiple times by two changes of legal counsel, a suppression hearing and a lengthy list of motions.