PAINESVILLE — The jury is chosen and the murder trial of Danna Weimer will begin today in Lake County Common Pleas Court.
Danna Weimer faces 17 charges — ranging from aggravated murder and aggravated burglary to tampering with evidence and receiving stolen property, in the brutal murder of 77-year-old Eleanor Robertson in June.
Robertson was found dead in her Canterbury Drive home by Madison Township police on June 13, the victim of an apparent burglary.
She was bludgeoned to death and had 90 puncture wounds across her body, Lake County Coroner Lynn Smith said. Robertson’s body had been burned or doused with chemicals and was found under layers of clothing and a mattress.
Weimer’s son, Zachary Weimer, 22, of Geneva faces the same 17 counts as his mother. His trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 13. Both have pleaded not guilty, court records show.
A legal delay in August postponed the trial when Danna Weimer’s attorney, Aaron T. Baker, filed to strike arrest statements and letters Weimer had written to her son from the evidence list, citing it as “evidence from an illegal stop and search and arrest gathered during continuing unconstitutional and custodial questioning,” court records show. Lake County Common Pleas Judge Eugene A. Lucci denied the motion to suppress evidence last week, court records show, and the trial will continue today at 8:30 a.m. Eleanor Robertson’s son, Scott Robertson, said he and his family will be at the courthouse every day of the trial. “We want justice and we want answers for what these people did to my mother,” he said.
