Woman found guilty of aggravated murder for role in pizza delivery murder
By Alan Ashworth
Akron Bracon Journal
November 25, 2020
A Rittman woman was found guilty of aggravated murder on Wednesday for her role in the 2012 slaying of her stepdaughter’s biological mother.
The jury found Erica Stefanko guilty on one count of aggravated murder and not guilty on another aggravated murder charge. She was also found guilty of murder and not guilty on three remaining charges in the so-called pizza delivery murder trial.
She will be sentenced in Jan. 11 and faces a possible sentence of life in prison.
The jury had deliberated for more than 14 hours over three days before convicting Stefanko. The Summit County Common Pleas Court trial centered on her role in the slaying of Ashley Biggs, who was delivering a pizza when she was beaten and strangled to death.
Earlier Wednesday, Judge Amy Corrigall Jones told jurors to continue deliberating despite difficulty in arriving at a decision.
"It is your duty to make every reasonable effort to decide the case," the judge said to a courtroom assembled a few minutes before noon.
Biggs, the slain woman, was the mother of the Erica Stefanko’s stepdaughter, who was 7 at the time of the murder. Now 15, the daughter testified Nov. 18 that Stefanko placed a pizza delivery order on the day Biggs was killed.
The 7-year-old’s father, Chad Cobb, is now in prison for his part in the crime. He pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and other charges and was sentenced in 2013 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
At the time of the murder, Biggs was involved in a heated court battle with Cobb and Stefanko over parenting issues and was seeking custody of her daughter. Biggs, a U.S. Army veteran, was working as a Domino's pizza delivery driver.
Stefanko was arrested last fall after police say new information came to light about her involvement in Biggs’ murder.
Biggs was beaten and strangled with a zip tie. Her body was found in a cornfield in Wayne County.
Stefanko’s trial began Nov. 16.
The trial was one of the first to proceed in Summit County Common Pleas Court since the pandemic began and received national attention. It was streamed live on Court TV, where it was labeled the "pizza delivery murder trial."
Prosecutors said Stefanko set the plot in motion in 2012, when she called Domino's and ordered a pizza delivered to a closed New Franklin business, knowing that Biggs would be the delivery driver.
When Biggs arrived at the closed business, investigators said that Cobb was waiting.
Biggs was shocked with a Taser, beaten, and strangled with a 4-foot zip tie. Stefanko, driving, later followed Cobb as he drove Biggs’ car to a Wayne County cornfield near Cobbs' parents home, prosecutors said.
Afterward, Cobb said he took a shower to wash blood off his body and then he and Stefanko, with children in their vehicle, returned to the business where Biggs was killed.
Defense attorney Kerry O'Brien argued Cobb — who now denies killing Biggs even after pleading guilty — was trying to implicate Stefanko in his testimony, hoping it would help him get out of prison.
The defense also pointed to other possible motives, including that Stefanko divorced Cobb after the murder and married a man who Cobb once considered his best friend. Together Stefanko and the man are raising Cobb's children.
New Franklin Police Department Det. Michael Hitchings tracked Stefanko for seven years after the murder, monitoring phone calls between her and Cobb while he was in prison. But it was a recorded call between Stefanko and Cobb’s mother, Cindee Cobb, that helped break the case, he told Court TV.
Hitchings said he was gratified the jury found Stefanko guilty and said he would like her to receive the same sentence as Chad Cobb. He said he hoped the verdict might provide some solace for Biggs’ friends and family.
“It is the best closure for them at this point,” he said.
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