AKRON, Ohio (Court TV) — An Ohio man who pled guilty over a decade ago to murdering his ex-girlfriend wants to withdraw that plea. Chad Cobb appeared in an Akron court earlier this month for a hearing regarding his motion to withdraw.
In exchange for a sentence of life without parole, Cobb pled guilty back in 2013 to aggravated murder in the 2012 death of Ashley Biggs. Cobb also pled guilty to kidnapping, domestic violence, aggravated robbery, felonious assault, retaliation, tampering with evidence, abuse of a corpse and possession of criminal tools.
Chad Cobb appeared at an Oct. 2024 hearing at which he requested to withdraw his guilty plea in the death of Ashley Biggs. (Court TV)
The State contends Cobb, now 42, waived his right to a trial, agreeing to spend life in prison so he’d be spared a possible death sentence.
At last week’s hearing, however, Cobb testified that he was misled by his attorney. He said he only pled guilty in order to save his kids. According to Cobb, his lawyer told him that if he didn’t plead guilty, his children would be put up for adoption and get “lost” in the system. He said he feared the kids’ names would be changed and that they’d be cut off from him forever. Cobb said he was led to believe that a guilty plea would allow him to maintain contact with the kids. Cobb emphasized that he wasn’t motivated so much by his desire to remain in the kids’ lives as he was for his own parents and grandparents to stay in their lives.
Cobb and Biggs shared a daughter together. At the time of Biggs’ death, the little girl was six years old, and the former couple was embroiled in a bitter custody dispute over her. She’s 19 years old today. Biggs, an Army veteran, was delivering pizzas for Dominos on the night she died. On June 20, 2012, Cobb’s wife, Erica Stefanko, lured Biggs to an empty office parking lot by placing a bogus Dominos order. Biggs, 25, was ambushed upon her arrival. Cobb tased and beat her, strangled her to death with a zip tie, and then stuffed her body into the back of a car that he abandoned in a cornfield.
Court TV’s Trial Archives: OH v. Erica Stefanko (2020)
Erica Stefanko was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the death of Ashley Biggs. (Court TV)
In a retrial covered by Court TV earlier this year, Stefanko, now 41, was found guilty of Biggs’ murder and sentenced to life in prison. She must serve a minimum of 30 years before she’s considered for parole. Cobb took the witness stand at both of Stefanko’s trials, telling jurors that he confronted and beat Biggs, but Stefanko was the one to carry out the strangling.
Cobb further testified that it wasn’t until after he pled guilty that he learned he could have pled not guilty and maintained his parental right. The State, however, noted that Cobb made the plea willingly so that Stefanko could raise the children.
Stefanko divorced Cobb in 2013, after he entered his guilty plea. Stefanko went on to marry and have a child with Cobb’s best friend prior to her arrest.
The judge did not yet make a ruling about whether Cobb can change his plea. The decision is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
