Murder of Ashley Biggs

Ashley Biggs, a 25-year-old U.S. Army veteran working as a delivery driver for a Domino's Pizza location in Green, Ohio, was killed on the night of June 20, 2012. Prosecutors said Erica Stefanko phoned in a fraudulent delivery order directing Biggs to the back door of a closed business in New Franklin, Ohio, in Summit County. When Biggs arrived, Stefanko's then-husband, Chad Cobb — Biggs' former boyfriend and the father of her young daughter — used a stun gun on her before beating and strangling her. Stefanko followed as Cobb drove Biggs' body to an empty field in Chippewa Township, Wayne County, then drove him home, where he washed away evidence of the crime. Biggs' body was found inside her car on June 21, 2012, and Cobb was arrested soon after, found hiding in a wooded area behind a relative's home. Prosecutors said the killing grew out of a contentious custody dispute between Cobb and Biggs over their daughter.

Cobb was indicted in July 2012, with a supplemental indictment the following month adding further counts, including capital specifications. In February 2013 he pleaded guilty to nine charges — including aggravated murder, kidnapping, aggravated robbery, felonious assault, and gross abuse of a corpse — and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Ohio's Ninth District Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction in 2014. Stefanko was not publicly implicated at the time, and that part of the case remained open for years.

In November 2019, New Franklin police and a U.S. Marshals task force arrested Stefanko, by then living in Rittman, Ohio, after a department detective said new information had come to light over the previous year. A Summit County grand jury indicted her on twelve counts. A jury convicted her of murder and aggravated murder in November 2020, and she was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison. That conviction was overturned in July 2022 by the Ninth District Court of Appeals, which found her right to confront a witness had been violated when Cobb was permitted to testify remotely from prison under pandemic-era court rules.

At a retrial, a jury again convicted Stefanko of aggravated murder and murder on January 31, 2024; she testified that she had placed the pizza order but said she believed Cobb intended only to plant drugs in Biggs' car to gain leverage in the custody case. On February 1, 2024, Judge Jennifer Towell sentenced her to life in prison with parole eligibility after 30 years, matching her earlier sentence. In March 2026, the Ninth District Court of Appeals rejected Stefanko's appeal of that conviction, finding sufficient evidence supported the jury's verdict; she retains the option to seek review from the Ohio Supreme Court. Separately, a Summit County judge denied a 2024 motion by Cobb to withdraw his original guilty plea, ruling in July 2025 that he had understood the plea's consequences when he entered it.