Defense puts forward different attacker in Nicholas Eber trial

By Ellin Youse and Noah Manskar
Editor-in-Chief and Online Editor

On the first day of the trial of Nicholas Eber, the Delaware man charged with attempted murder and three other felonies for allegedly stabbing former Ohio Wesleyan senior class president Anthony Peddle ’14, his defense attorneys argued another man, Matthew Costello, should be the suspect on trial.

In his cross-examination of three Delaware Police Department officers Tuesday in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas, defense attorney Joel Spitzer argued there were links between the May 3 stabbing at the Chi Phi fraternity house at 216 N. Franklin St. and another incident at a nearby convenience store.

Three hours after leaving the Chi Phi house that morning, officer Joseph Kolp said he and officer Mark Jackson responded to a call reporting a man in a deep blue hoodie with blood on his face had entered the United Dairy Farmers store at 123 W. William St., went to the bathroom and tried to sell the cashier his cell phone. The cashier told officers she assumed the man had been in a fight.

In reviewing the footage from the store’s security cameras, it was unclear who the man was and whether he had blood on his face. Kolp told Spitzer store employees said there was no indication of any blood in the store.

Later that morning, around 6 a.m., Kolp saw a man who fit the description of the person at the store walking on Sandusky Street. He identified him as Costello, adding he consented to a search and was “very cooperative.”

Kolp said Costello explained the blood on his nose was from a pimple that he had “cut off.” When prosecuting attorney Doug Dumolt asked Kolp if he suspected Costello was involved in the stabbing, he said no.

Eber was arrested May 8 after police found a green sweatshirt with lettering on the arm that matched the description of the one Peddle’s attacker was wearing in his apartment on N. Washington Street on May 5. There were spots on the garment that may have been blood, DPD detective sergeant John Radabugh said in his testimony.

That led to a more thorough search permitted by a warrant, in which police found shoes that were later found to have blood on them and three other sweatshirts that matched the assailant’s.

Additionally, a knife was missing from the knife block in Eber’s kitchen, and the detectives could not find a one that fit the space.

He was eventually indicted on charges of attempted murder, felonious assault, aggravated burglary and tampering with evidence.

When Radabaugh and detective David McQuigg first questioned Eber at the Chi Phi house on May 3, McQuigg noticed a “significant cut” on his arm, Radabaugh said on the stand. Eber told them he got it from a glass he broke doing dishes in his apartment, which is about three blocks southwest of the crime scene.

One of the sweatshirts police found in the second search had a hole in the sleeve similar to the location of the cut on Eber’s arm.

On the first visit to the apartment, officers found a broken glass in the sink and shards of glass around the sink, including some that appeared to have brown droplets on them. They also found a trash can in his bathroom filled with bloody bandages.

Eber’s charges require the prosecution to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Eber committed the crime.

Judge Everett Krueger instructed the 12 selected jurors and the appointed alternate that if they are not “firmly convinced” Eber attacked Peddle after considering all the evidence presented in the courtroom, they must acquit him.

A reasonable doubt, Krueger said, is one by which “an ordinary person would be willing to rely and act upon it in the most important of his or her on affairs.”

The jurors visited the Chi Phi house Tuesday morning to view the scene of the crime. The trial is expected to continue through Friday.