Nick Eber has been found guilty of attempted murder, aggravated burglary and felonious assault on Friday evening. The jury deliberated for about five and a half hours before bringing back a verdict of guilty on all three counts.This based on an case even prosecutors admitted was based on circumstantial evidence.
Nick Eber was accused of attempting to kill Anthony Peddle, inside an Ohio Wesleyan University fraternity house. Peddle, OWU’s Class President at the time, was days from graduating when he was stabbed in his room as he slept.
On Friday, after hearing closing arguments from prosecutors and the defense, jurors began deliberating.
The victim is 22-year-old-Anthony Peddle.
The defendant is 24 year old Nicholas Eber.
The only link between them is Peddle's best friend and Eber's ex-boyfriend, Sean Anthony. Prosecutors say Eber was obsessed with Anthony, and blamed Peddle for their break-up. Peddle and Anthony were days away from graduating from Ohio Wesleyan and moving out of the fraternity house that would become the scene of the crime.
"Anthony is the class president. He's popular and leaving Delaware behind. The defendant, according to Sean Anthony, was disliked or ignored by the Chi Phi fraternity brothers," said Assistant Delaware County Prosecutor Doug Dumolt. “Anthony Peddle, the man who treats him like he doesn't exist, a non-factor, looks down upon him, and the man who is everything he isn't, is taking his beloved Sean Anthony from him. Love, obsession, jealousy, are these not reasons to kill?"
Prosecutors say Eber knew the security code to the Chi Phi house, entered around 3:30 the morning of May 3, and as Peddle slept, plunged a knife into his chest.
"But Mr. Eber doesn't just strike Mr. Peddle again. He strikes himself in the darkness and in the struggle," Dumolt told jurors. He said that explains the fresh one-inch gash in Eber's arm when police found him later that morning. Eber says he cut himself washing dishes the night before.
The defense says prosecutors tell a nice story, but lack the evidence to back it up: no DNA, and no witnesses.
"There's no evidence at all linking Nick to the scene or the scene to Nick,” said defense attorney Joel Spitzer. “Not a thread of direct evidence, not a thread of circumstantial evidence, nothing says Nick did it."
They produced a witness who raised questions about another potential suspect.
On May 3rd, Jennifer Garrettson was working at a UDF, a mile from the crime scene, 20 minutes after the stabbing.
"A young man came in, had blood on his face, hands, shirt, and was acting kind of anxious, frantic, a little. Kind of running back and forth from the windows to the bathroom," she said. But prosecutors say police spoke to that man, and cleared him as a suspect.
Eber was charged with Attempted Murder, Felonious Assault, and Aggravated Burglary. He now faces up to 22 years in prison if convicted.