Faulty video recorder blamed for mistrial in murder trial

4/30/2009

A faulty video machine has resulted in a mistrial in the murder trial of Dana Todd Rister, 42, who is accused of the June death of a woman who was found in a shed near Southwyck Shopping Center.

Rister's trial in Lucas County Common Pleas Court was halted Thursday morning and attorneys will meet Monday to set a new trial date.

The mistrial was declared following the continual failure of a machine that was to have allowed jurors to see a recorded statement Rister made to detectives in San Bernardino County, California, where he was arrested in September. The jury had watched portions of that statement on Wednesday.

Rister is charged with two alternate counts of murder for the death of Debra Pioterek, 57, whose body was found near Southwyck in South Toledo on June 26. She was strangled and her death was ruled a homicide.