Woman Marries Man Who Was Convicted Of Killing Her Brother

A woman in the US has married a man who was convicted of killing her half brother. Watch here:

John Tiedjen was convicted of killing Brian McGary in 1987 and spent 32 years behind bars.

However, the 57-year-old was released after dozens of new evidence photos and police reports that were not seen in the original trial came to light, with Judge Dick Ambrose ordering a new trial.

Now Tiedjen is on house arrest in Cleveland, Ohio - and he has a new Mrs Tiedjen in his life.

Crystal Straus (the half sister of McGary) originally wrote to Tiedjen while he was behind bars to offer her forgiveness, but it soon snowballed into much, much more.

Tiedjen - who maintains that McGary killed himself - told News 5 Cleveland: "With all my heart I love her, there is nobody else I think about, and I want to be with her my whole life.

"And I wrote her a letter back and I said I didn't do it, take a look at this stuff. I believe in God too, and I know things about it, but I didn't do it.

"I had no powder burns, no gunshot residue, no blood, no cuts, no scrapes, nothing on my person or me or my clothing."

News 5 Cleveland

However, while there may be piles of new evidence to examine in the retrial, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office is confident Tiedjen will be found guilty once again, with the prosecutor's office telling News 5 Cleveland it has evidence of him asking a friend to dispose of the gun used in McGary's death.

Crystal is under no illusions about the obstacles she and her new hubby face, but she is confident they will be able to get past them.

She said: "I love him obviously, if I didn't love him I would not be sitting here with him.

"I spent the whole time through Covid analysing and learning about this case.

"We'll get through this, it's going to be challenging, there's no doubt about it."

Meanwhile, defence solicitor Kimberly Kendall Corral - who submitted all the unseen crime photos and police reports and officiated their wedding - is calling for judicial reform in Ohio.

She said: "The judge decided had the evidence been available, the outcome of the trial would have been different.

"From a legislative perspective, we need to do something with the parole board. The parole board doesn't give time and attention to these cases, they don't give equal time to these cases, they're not transparent about what the opposition is.

"We need to give defendants a full and fair opportunity to present evidence that wasn't available at the time of trial, whatever the reason was."

Topics: Interesting, US News, crime, marriage

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey