death penalty news August 10, 2005
OHIO: More suspect names surface as Spirko moves closer to execution A postal inspector investigating the 1982 slaying of a postmistress in Elgin never doubted John Spirko's involvement. Postal Inspector Paul Hartman also never doubted others were involved. In documents recently filed in U.S. District Court in Toledo, Hartman said he was convinced another man, James Clark Kelley was with Spirko when Betty Jane Mottinger was abducted from the Elgin post office Aug. 9, 1982. The documents were filed by state prosecutors as part of a motion asking that Spirko's latest filings be dismissed. Spirko is trying to stop or postpone his scheduled Sept. 20 execution. State attorneys said Spirko's claims there is new evidence that may prove his innocence actu-ally is old evidence other courts previously have considered. They use a 1999 letter from Hartman and other records to make their point. In that letter to a top postal employee in Washington D.C., Hartman talked about claims Spirko had made at the time. Hartman said Spirko had improperly characterized his files. He said, if anything, his records contain evidence that further helps to prove Spirko's guilt. It's in his letter that Hartman goes into detail why he suspected Kelley along with Spirko in Mottinger's abduction and murder. First, Kelley spent time in prison with Spirko while Spirko was serving another sentence for murder. Hartman investigated the possible link with Kelley and learned that another postal inspector from Cincinnati was investigating Kelley for passing fraudulent postal money orders. That investigator found a number of photos of various inmates including Spirko with Kelley when he was stopped by police in Madison, Ind., according to court records. It was after that incident that Hartman learned Kelley had a history of violent crime includ-ing murder and robbery, according to court records. Hartman also established that Kelley was not in custody at the time of Mottinger's death but was wanted on murder and robbery charges in Kentucky. Around the time of Mottinger's death, Hartman also learned that Kelley may have been in Fort Wayne, which is not far from Elgin, he said in records. Hartman continued to dig. He learned a third postal investigator was looking at Kelley for a string of burglaries at post offices in Southern Indiana. Kelley was not charged for those crimes, according to court records. But it wasn't until 1990 that Hartman received perhaps his most convincing evidence. Hart-man learned an FBI agent had information he gleaned from a confidential source that may further link Kelley and Spirko to Mottinger's slaying, according to court records. While the source was locked up with Kelley in North Dakota, the source said Kelley admitted that he and a man named "Jack Spirko" held up a post office in Ohio and killed the postmas-ter, according to court records. "Based, in part, upon the above facts, I am convinced that James Clark Kelley along with John George Spirko, participated in the robbery of the Elgin, OH Post Office, and in the ab-duction and homicide of Postmaster Betty Jane Mottinger," Hartman wrote in the letter. Hartman also said he has identified at least one other suspect who was present when the post office was robbed and Mottinger was abducted. Hartman also notes that Mottinger was the only postal employee murdered during his tenure. Kelley, who today is 58, remains in a prison in Nevada where he is serving two life sentences for two separate murders. Kelley is not the only name to surface in the court records. Two other names are referenced as possible suspects but Hartman only said they may have been with Kelley in Fort Wayne around the time of Mottinger's murder. Meanwhile, another man, Delaney Gibson, also has been named as a suspect and has been the subject of Spirko's latest appeals. Spirko's defense team has used Gibson to try to win him a new trial. A witness in the Spirko case picked Gibson out of a photo array saying she spotted him out-side the post office the morning Mottinger disappeared. But there is evidence to show Gibson was in North Carolina the day before. After Spirko's attorneys learned there is evidence that put Gibson's whereabouts in doubt when Mottinger was killed they asked for a new trial. Gibson was charged in Mottinger's slaying but never brought to trial because he was serving time for another murder in Kentucky. Gibson was released from prison in 2001 and prosecu-tors in Van Wert dropped charges against him last year saying the case was too old to success-fully prosecute. (source: LimaOhio.com)
