Summary Of The Gayle Meggyesy Case

MILLERSBURG — In March 1996, he was 30 years old and had only months before been appointed Holmes County Prosecutor. The murder of Gayle Meggyesy was the third sensational case in which he had encountered in his career. And, now, nearly 30 years later, the case still sticks with Thom White, who has since assumed and descended the bench and moved into private practice.

Meggyesy was shot dead in the kitchen of her rural Killbuck Township home on March 29, 1986. Two years later, in March 1988, John Friedrich, a family friend and past employee of her husband, Dennis Meggyesy, was convicted of her murder.

Friedrich, who was sentenced to 18 years to life in prison is now being considered for parole, with a full hearing of the Ohio Parole Board set

“The defendant was a young man who had gone to school in the community. He didn't have any prior (criminal) record, and he was not person you would think would commit murder, but the evidence was so overwhelming,” said White, pointing specifically to ballistic evidence, which, in his opinion was so strong the only real decision before the jury was whether the murder was planned or the result of a confrontation.

After five hours of deliberating, the jurors found Friedrich guilty of murder, but not guilty of aggravated murder, which required a finding of premeditation and carried a more serious penalty.

Friedrich emerged as a real suspect when investigators reviewed the taped phone call made from the Meggyesy home by Friedrich after reportedly discovered his lifeless body. Friedrich appeared to be calm and collected when talking with the dispatcher, until he was asked how much time had elapsed since she had been shot. The question caused Friedrich to falter and become unsettled, according to

“Initially, it was hard to pick apart until we started getting physical evidence to support what had happened,” said Pennell, adding, “John was kind of his own worst enemy. After a while, it would have come out, and it did come out through a friend that he had gone out and fired at gravel pit next to their farm the day before.

Bullets recovered from that location, along with those taken from Meggyesy's body were ballistically linked to Friedrich's gun. White credits the stellar work of local and state law enforcement, which, ultimately, made his first murder prosecution a successful one, but one he could not have done alone.

Nevertheless, in the five days that passed between the murder and Friedrich's arrest, the community panicked.

“It made a lot of people apprehensive — (occurring) in a rural portion of county, not knowing who was out there and who was at large,” he said. “We did not have a lot of murders in our county. Since it was in an outlying area, it made people really apprehensive. The motive was not initially apparent; there were no signs of robbery. That's what made people wonder if it was just someone passing