For the week of August 1 - 7, 2001

Liebl pleads guilty 
to assault

Change of plea for bike path attack

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By GREG MOORE
Express Staff Writer

Without actually admitting he had committed the crime, 18-year-old Eric Liebl pleaded guilty to felony aggravated assault Monday for an April 16 attack on a woman riding on the bike path north of Hailey. Sentencing was set for Sept. 10.

Liebl’s change of plea was made in exchange for a recommendation by the Blaine County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office that the court drop a penalty enhancement for the use of a deadly weapon in the assault, as well as a misdemeanor battery charge.

Eric Liebl 

The recommendation includes a fixed five-year prison term. With the deadly weapon enhancement, Liebl would face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Fifth District Judge James May will not be bound by the agreement when imposing a sentence.

A former Arizona resident who had been living at Lion’s Park in Hailey, Liebl was accused of knocking a 47-year-old Ketchum woman off her bike and trying to drag her into the woods, brandishing a knife and telling her, "I’m going to kill you."

Liebl has been in Blaine County Jail, in lieu of a $100,000 bond, since his arrest almost immediately after the assault.

During Monday’s hearing, defense attorney Jennifer Haemmerle told May that her client’s guilty plea was being entered as an "Alford" plea. The term came into being following a 1970 U.S. Supreme Court case, North Carolina v. Alford, in which a defendant claimed innocence but pleaded guilty to second-degree murder rather than risk a death sentence from a first-degree murder trial.

"Mr. Liebl has consistently maintained he is innocent of the crime," Haemmerle said.

However, she noted that the state’s case "consists of a lot of pieces of evidence that, taken together, appear substantial." She contended that much of the circumstantial evidence could have been rebutted at trial, but said her client did not want to risk being convicted under the deadly-weapon penalty enhancement.

May asked Liebl if he understood that "by entering a plea of guilty, you are admitting that you’re guilty of an aggravated assault."

Liebl said he did.

The evidence against Liebl includes a witness’s description of a man with Liebl’s appearance in the vicinity of the crime, blood on Liebl’s coat matching the victim’s DNA profile and footprint’s at the scene matching Liebl’s sneakers. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Marilyn Paul told the court that the location of blood on Liebl’s coat sleeve "is entirely consistent with [the victim’s] account of the struggle."

However, the victim has acknowledged she did not get a good look at her attacker’s face and no knife has been found. Haemmerle also pointed out that DNA evidence cannot make a match to a specific person.

Haemmerle requested that the court retain jurisdiction of the case to give Liebl the opportunity to acquire "the tools he needs to be more successful in society." She said her client has been on his own since the age of 13 and has not acquired normal social skills.

"As he looks at turning 19 and proceeding into adulthood, he is still very much a child," she said.

Liebl’s mother, grandmother and brother attended Monday’s court hearing. His mother, Diane Liebl, declined to answer a reporter’s question about her son’s whereabouts during his youth.

Liebl told the court he had obtained his General Education Diploma while in juvenile detention in Arizona.

In response to May’s questions, Liebl acknowledged having been "a substantial user" of alcohol and drugs. May ordered a pre-sentencing evaluation to determine whether Liebl would need substance-abuse treatment.

May denied a request by Haemmerle that her client’s bond be reduced so he could be with his family pending sentencing. Concurrent with his detention while awaiting trial on the aggravated assault charge, Liebl has been serving a four-and-a-half-month sentence for a conviction in May on a misdemeanor charge of malicious injury to property. He damaged a snowmobile after taking it from a Bellevue house in December.

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