Delaware County Prosecutor Melissa Schiffel is defending her decision to try a man for murder despite not having any evidence he committed the crime, or that a murder even took place.
The prosecutor’s statements come a week after a jury found Matheau Moore not guilty in Delaware County Common Pleas Court. The Westerville man was charged with killing his wife, Emily Noble, and staging her death to look like a suicide. Noble was reported missing in May 2020. Her body was found hanging from a tree in a wooded area near her home later that September.
“A lot of people wanted this to be murder, myself included. When enough people said it must have been murder, I started to agree. I love a good murder,” Schiffel said. “The murder narrative sounds better than suicide, and the narrative is more important than the evidence. Evidence is overrated.”
Schiffel’s plan to advance her political career by railroading an innocent man was thwarted when Moore hired skilled defense counsel.
Defense attorney Diane Menashe shredded the state’s purely speculative case, going so far as to accuse the prosecution of preying upon an unsophisticated man who lacked the means to defend himself.
“The prosecution had no case; they knew they had no case,” said Menashe. “But they had the confidence to try it anyways because they figured Mr. Moore was too weak to put up much of a fight. Thankfully they were wrong. But it makes you wonder: how many people haven’t been as lucky here in Delaware County? How many innocent people are in prison or have had their lives destroyed because of prosecutors like Melissa Schiffel and Mark Sleeper?”
Mark Sleeper was the assistant prosecutor on the case. Before trial, he was caught on a hot mic asking Schiffel if they should proceed even though Moore was likely innocent. Schiffel replied, “Mark, just do your job and fry this guy. Our reputation as God’s justice is at stake.”
Schiffel says she has no plans to deviate from her “What’s Truth?” prosecutorial strategy despite being embarrassed on national television.
“This case doesn’t change anything,” Schiffel said. “Give me another Polaris shooting, and people will forget what I did to Mr. Moore. Looking tough on crime is all I need to get re-elected.”
Typical trumpers