After about 40 minutes of deliberation, a jury found Mariesha Ohlfs guilty of aggravated robbery Monday afternoon, setting off a storm of tears on both sides of the courtroom.
Jurors found that Ohlfs, 34, assisted her boyfriend Noah Whitehead and his friend William “Billy” Stephens in planning and executing the July 2, 2009, robbery and murder of cabdriver Hooshang Vatanpour.
Final arguments will begin at 1:30 p.m. today in the punishment phase of the trial in 362nd District Court.
Vatanpour’s daughter and sister held each other and cried in relief at the verdict, while Ohlfs’ sister, brother and friends cried in grief and frustration over her conviction of the first-degree felony.
Because she has never been convicted of a felony, Ohlfs could be eligible for probation if jurors recommend that and sentence her to 10 years or less in prison. Because of the severity of the crime, she could be sentenced to up to 99 years in prison or life.
Summations in the guilt-innocence phase of the trial were scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Monday, but instead, defense attorney David Wacker reopened his case and presented several additional witnesses. Part of his goal was to show the jury that inmates who testified that Ohlfs confessed to them had access to the information about the case from other sources.
Private investigator Bobby Walton brought a number of newspaper articles written about the case that he said he obtained on the Internet.
Prosecutor Rick Daniel objected to the introduction of the articles and Judge Bruce McFarling agreed.
Inmate Colleen Russell testified that Ohlfs was her best friend in a “pod” cell at the Denton County Jail. Another inmate has a subscription to the local newspaper, she said, and the other women read that newspaper.
She testified that the inmate who testified that Ohlfs told her about the crime is a liar.
In summations, prosecutor Michael Dickens told jurors they could either convict Ohlfs for being a party to the crime or for conspiring with the two men to commit it.
The most damning evidence against her, he said, was the log of text messages that Ohlfs and Whitehead exchanged before and during the crime.
“Got one yet?” came from her cellphone after she dropped the two men off at a cab stand that evening.
“Told ya it would be 7 before it really got going,” was Whitehead’s reply.
Whitehead testified Friday that his girlfriend knew nothing about what he and Stephens were doing, Dickens reminded the jury. He said Whitehead led her to believe that he was selling marijuana. But Whitehead obviously cared for her and was trying to keep her out of trouble, the prosecutor said.
When Whitehead texted her to put some gasoline in a gas can and bring it to their location, Ohlfs’ reaction should have been something like, “Gas can? What do you need a gas can for when you don’t have a car?” Dickens said.
Instead Ohlfs texted that she was on her way back to town and asked how much gas he needed.
“Taking a gas can to a dope deal doesn’t make sense,” he said.
Dickens reminded the jury that in her taped interview with sheriff’s Investigator Larry Kish and Texas Ranger Tracy Murphree, Ohlfs began by lying about having no involvement in the crime.
But when confronted with the text messages, she broke down crying and admitted she was involved, he said.
Whitehead testified that he made $400 a day selling marijuana. But Dickens said they obviously needed money and the robbery was a way to make some quick cash.
“If they had much money, they wouldn’t have been sleeping next to a washer and dryer in somebody else’s house,” he said.
Wacker told the jury in his turn that the state had “wholly failed” to prove that Ohlfs knew anything about the robbery and murder.
“She had some confusing texts with a psychopath,” he said. “Does that make her guilty? There are multiple explanations for what these things mean.”
Ohlfs did not know that Whitehead had a knife, Wacker said. And she did not know they had stabbed the cab driver and slashed his throat.
“We’re talking about criminal responsibility,” he said. “It’s not enough that she dropped them off and picked them up. She had to have wanted to help them.”
Prosecutor Daniel showed the jury the knife Whitehead used to stab Vatanpour.
It was 11 inches long, he said, and hard to hide from a person you shared such a small space with, he said.
The property from the June 28, 2009, robbery of a Fort Worth cab driver was on a table less than 5 feet from where Ohlfs slept, he said.
Investigators found Vatanpour’s wallet and credit cards next to Whitehead’s bloody cap on the table, as well.
Daniel held up a photo of Vatanpour in life and another in death, burned so badly that dental records were used to identify him.
“For a week he has been largely a photo,” Daniel said. “But he wasn’t just a photo. He had a family who loved him dearly. Then three people got together and took his property, and took his life.”
