Tuesday, June 16th, 2015
Lima man found competent in local cold-case murder
Defense requests another psych test
By Kathy Thompson
Photo by Kathy Thompson/The Daily Standard
Brian S. Guggenbiller, 52, center, of Lima, speaks with his attorneys, William Kluge and Robert Grzybowski, during a Monday afternoon competency hearing in Auglaize County Common Pleas Court. Guggenbiller has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder. He is the third suspect charged in the death of Marcellus Reineke, 72, during a 1981 burglary in St. Marys.
WAPAKONETA - A psychological exam has determined the third man accused in an October 1981 murder in St. Marys is competent to stand trial.
Brian S. Guggenbiller, 52, of Lima, who has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder, is the third suspect charged in the death of Marcellus Reineke, 72, during an October 1981 burglary.
Dr. Thomas Martin of the Forensic Psychological Treatment Center found Guggenbiller to be competent to stand trial despite the suspect's "mental issues," assistant prosecutor Ben Elder said at Monday's hearing in Auglaize County Common Pleas Court.
Those issues were not discussed during the hearing and the psychological report was sealed by visiting Judge Reginald Routson.
Defense attorney Robert Grzybowski requested another psychological test, to cost up to $5,000, by Dr. Thomas Swales.
Routson agreed to the request but said he will look at Swales' credentials and review his expenditures.
The courtroom was hushed as the judge ordered the new testing and accepted Guggenbiller's waiver of his right to a speedy trial.
Retired St. Marys Detective Kim Reiher and Sgt. Tim Eberle, who both worked on the case, sat with police chief Mark Ernst in the back of the courtroom.
Reiher said the hearing was another "cog in the wheel" toward closing a cold case he has investigated for 33 years.
"Both of these men should be proud of themselves," Ernst said after the hearing. "Detective Eberle's father even worked on this case."
Two other men charged in the case, Paul Leroy Hoover, 53, of Florida and formerly of St. Marys, and Tracy Mabry, 52, of Celina, have each been sentenced to seven to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter charges.
According to information revealed at an earlier court hearing, Mabry on Oct. 13, 1981, drove Hoover and Guggenbiller to Reineke's home on South West Street and Hoover reportedly went upstairs to search for a briefcase he believed contained $50,000.
Authorities believe Guggenbiller confronted the elderly man and stabbed him 39 times. Reineke also suffered multiple blunt-force injuries while the suspects tried to persuade him to reveal the location of the briefcase, according to officials.
The prosecutor earlier said Hoover had poured lighter fluid onto a bedroom mattress and ignited it before the three men fled the home. Detectives reported a small amount of cash, old coins and a watch were missing from the residence. Guggenbiller, who was 18 at the time of the crime, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years, per the indictment and the law at the time of the crime. He remains in jail on a $2 million cash bond.
None of the indictments included death-penalty specifications.
