After almost 12 years and one failed escape attempt, Claudia Hoerig is scheduled to be sentenced Friday for the aggravated murder of her husband Karl Hoerig. She faces a life term without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors in Trumbull County, Ohio said she killed him March 12, 2007 with a newly purchased gun, then fled to her birth country of Brazil.
This was a rocky relationship by all accounts. The couple had meet via an online dating site, fell in love fast, and Clauida moved from New York City to be with him. She regretted it because he was often out of town as a pilot for Southwest Airlines, knew no one in her new town, and was surprised by having to live with his son from a previous relationship. A coworker of the victim said Karl had shared plans to move out of couple’s residence, according to the arrest warrant affidavit obtained by Law&Crime. Claudia had allegedly shot a gun in the house, and there were other marital problems. The defendant at trial made lurid allegations about her dead husband’s sexual preferences.
The defendant was extradited to the U.S. from Brazil in January 2018. A videotaped confession to federal officials showed her confessing to killing her husband, but she insisted that Karl was abusive. She claimed that she planned on simply killing herself at first, but that the victim made a dismissive remark when she was about to commit suicide. According to her, he told her to end her life downstairs so that she wouldn’t get blood on his paintings.
“If he hadn’t said that, I would be dead and he would be alive,” she said. Her defense argued at trial that she only killed him out of a fit of rage, not premeditation.
The jury didn’t buy the argument. Juror Stephen Bistarkey told The Vindicator that evidence showed that Hoerig purchased a laser sight for her new gun. Someone committing suicide wouldn’t need that, he said. He said that and other elements contributed to the guilty verdict.
[Screengrab via Law&Crime Network]