Appellate Court rules on convicted murderer’s appeal

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

LIMA — An appeal filed by a Rockford man accused of shooting and killing his girlfriend in Van Wert has been denied.

Ryan Houser, 40, filed his appeal with the Third District Court of Appeals in Lima in late June of last year, just days after Van Wert County Common Pleas Court Judge Martin Burchfield sentenced him to 15 years to life for murder. The prison term for the murder charge, an unclassified felony, is mandatory.

Court documents show the basis of Houser’s appeal was his conviction and ensuing sentence.

Oral arguments were heard by Judges William R. Zimmerman, Mark C. Miller and John R. Willamowski in February. Their 35-page decision, dated Monday, April 13, affirmed the conviction and the sentence imposed by Judge Martin D. Burchfield. The justices also ordered Houser to pay for the cost of the appeal.

The case dates back to September, 2023, when Houser was the sole suspect in the death of Barbara Ganger, 43, of Van Wert. Her body was discovered on September 4, 2023, after the Van Wert Police Department did a welfare check at her residence at Van Wert West Apartments on W. Main St. Officers discovered she had been shot twice.

“Following the discovery of her body, law enforcement identified Houser – her on-again, off-again boyfriend -– as a suspect based on his history of threatening her life and video surveillance placing him near the scene around her estimated time of death,” the Appeals Court Judges wrote in their decision. “During initial questioning with law enforcement, Houser implicated himself by demonstrating knowledge that the victim had been shot before police disclosed her cause of death. Although Houser consented to a search of his cell phone during interviews with law enforcement, investigators nonetheless sought a warrant to search his cloud data. Subsequent forensic analysis ultimately revealed that Houser had deleted information from his phone.”

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 questioned by Van Wert Police and was was indicted by a Van Wert County grand jury in early November, 2023, on charges of aggravated murder, an unclassified felony; murder, an unclassified felony; possessing a weapon under disability, a third degree felony, and with tampering with evidence, also a third degree felony. He pleaded not guilty during an arraignment hearing held several days later.

Houser remained in custody for well over a year in lieu of $1 million bond. During that time, there were many delays, motions filed, two trial postponements and three charges of counsel.

On March 6, 2025, approximately six weeks before his final trial date, Houser unexpectedly changed his plea 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.

Two months after entering the plea and being found guilty by Judge Burchfield, Houser was in court for sentencing but as the hearing started, he claimed he was innocent and requested that his no contest plea be withdrawn. On May 29 of last year, Judge Burchfield issued a written ruling denying the request, then on June 24, Houser was given the mandatory sentence.

It’s unknown if he’ll file a new appeal.Houser is serving his sentenced at the Madison Correctional Institution and his expected release date is February, 2039.

The full decision by the Third District Court of Appeals is below.