Jury finds man not guilty in retrial of wife’s 1974 killing in Cleveland

CLEVELAND — A jury on Wednesday found an 83-yearold man not guilty of killing his wife in 1974 after his conviction from nearly five decades ago was overturned due to withheld evidence.

Isaiah Andrews, who spent 45 years in prison for the crime that he maintained he did not commit, nodded his head after visiting Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Timothy J. Mcginty read the verdict. After the jury left the room, Andrews hugged his attorneys and other men who whose convictions in Cuyahoga County were overturned with the help of the Ohio Innocence Project.

It took jurors less than 90 minutes to reach the unanimous verdict on the single count of aggravated murder.

Andrews told reporters in the courtroom after the hearing that the not-guilty verdict “relieved all the weight off ” of him, and gestured to his chest.

“I’ve become free,” he said.

Defense attorney Marcus Sidoti and Ohio Innocence Project staff attorney Brian Howe said after the hearing that the jury got it right.

Sidoti called Andrews’ conviction and the 45 years he spent in prison a “grave injustice.” Howe said Andrews, who needs a wheelchair and has seen his health decline as prosecutors sought to retry him, will never be able to get the last 46 years of his life back.

“This was the right result today, but I don’t know if he’ll ever get actual justice,” Howe said. “He should have never been convicted in the first place and he certainly never should have been retried.”

The verdict comes after an unusual trial that mostly featured the reading of transcripts from Andrews’ original 1975 trial. Many of the witnesses, including the Cleveland police detectives who investigated the killing, are now dead.

Andrews won a new trial last year after attorneys with the Ohio Innocence Project discovered that Cleveland police withheld a report that detailed how detectives investigated and arrested another man, Willie Watts, after initial evidence found at the scene implicated him. Watts, who died in 2011, was ultimately released from custody before detectives turned their sights on Andrews.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’malley’s office fought against Andrews’ push for a new trial.

The office offered Andrews a plea bargain before the trial began that would have allowed Mcginty to decide if he should serve any more prison time in exchange for pleading guilty to causing his wife’s death. Andrews rejected the offer, and told Mcginty he understood that he risked going back to prison if he was convicted.

“I want justice for my wife,” Andrews told the judge.

Isaiah Andrews and Regina Andrews married in August 1974, after knowing each for a few months. They lived at the Colonial House motel until they could move to an apartment in Euclid.

A man found Regina Andrews’ body on Sept. 18, 1974 in Forest Hill Park on the border of Cleveland and Cleveland Heights. She was wrapped in bedding from three different hotels. Some of the linens bore the stamp of a hotel where Watts had stayed the previous night, which was missing bedding.

In addition, a maid at the Colonial House — where the Andrews were staying — later told police that one of the bed sheets found at the scene was the same type of bedding used by the Colonial Hotel.

Watts, whose mother lived less than 1,500 feet from the park where Regina Andrews’ body was found, gave Cleveland police detectives an alibi for the time they initially believed she was killed. But when detectives later altered their estimated time of death to a time frame when Watts did not have an alibi, they never revisited him a suspect.

Police released Watts from custody before they identified Isaiah Andrews as a suspect. After his arrest, witnesses who initially reported nothing remarkable then told detectives that Andrews was acting strangely after his wife disappeared, but before her body was found.

Police found no physical evidence to tie Isaiah Andrews to the killing. Several pieces of evidence were found, including a partial palm print, blood samples and other bodily fluids from near the body.

Andrews’ attorneys sought DNA testing of the evidence in 2018. It wasn’t until after an appeals court ordered the DNA testing to occur that they learned the evidence had been destroyed, and received the Cleveland police report detailing the investigation into Watts that was not handed over at his first trial.

“As soon as we saw the report, it was clear that Isaiah Andrews was innocent and somebody else committed the crime,” Howe said.