Insurance fraud trial hinges on revealing a killer

Aug. 15--On a cool August morning in 2009, Mary Moss was still reeling from the news of her daughter's murder the night before when she found herself face to face with the man she believed pulled the trigger.

"What did you do to my daughter?" Moss demanded.

All Ronald "Todd" Epps would say is, "I'm sorry."

Six years later, Moss is confronting Epps again, this time from the front row of a downtown courtroom, where she has sat almost every day for the past two weeks, and as a key witness in the prosecution of her daughter's former fiance.

Epps is on trial in federal court, accused of fraud, arson and firearms crimes. But not murder.

Yet for Moss and her family, this trial may be as close as they ever get to a murder trial.

At the core of the insurance fraud prosecution is the claim that Epps shot and killed Angela Moss in order to collect on her $100,000 life insurance policy.

And to prove the fraud, prosecutors must first prove Epps is a killer.

It was late, well past 11 p.m. on Aug. 27, 2009, when Angela Moss was last seen alive. She had just finished her nursing shift at Absolut Care, an Orchard Park nursing home, and a co-worker says she was picked up by a dark sedan often driven by her longtime boyfriend.

Early the next morning, Moss' body was discovered alongside California Road in Orchard Park, not far from her workplace. At the time, police said they had no suspects or motives for the killing and, for three years, the case went unsolved.

District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III declined to prosecute Epps, but Orchard Park Police believed they had built a strong case and took their evidence to federal prosecutors.

In March of 2012, a federal grand jury indicted Epps on drugs and weapons charges. A second grand jury followed suit a few months later with new charges of fraud and arson.

With the help of witnesses, who have ranged from Angela's co-workers to Epps' former girlfriend, prosecutors Joel L. Violanti and Melissa M. Marangola have woven a story of a controlling fiance eager to cash in on his girlfriend's death. They claim Epps waited only a few days before seeking the insurance money.

"I didn't like his lifestyle," Mary Moss told the jury at one point last week.

"And I didn't like the way he treated my daughter."

Moss, who remained composed through most of her testimony, told the jury about the morning after her daughter's death and how she and her husband rushed to the murder scene on California Road. Her husband, Angela's father, died shortly after the trial began.

From Day One, Moss has been a fixture in the courtroom. One of the few exceptions was during the testimony of Stanley Hall, a neighbor of Epps. He claimed Epps approached him shortly after Angela's death and asked him to kill her mother.

Hall said he bought marijuana from Epps and often saw a 9mm gun, the type used to kill Angela, in Epps' kitchen. He also claimed he heard Epps argue with Angela one day during the summer of 2009, shortly before she was killed, and end the conversation, "Before I let you go, I'll kill you."

Hall said he continued to buy marijuana from Epps after Angela's murder and at one point found himself faced with Epps' bizarre and dangerous plot to kill Mary Moss. He said Epps was angry over Moss' legal attempts to stop him from collecting on Angela's life insurance.

"I looked at him and said, 'are you kidding?'?" Hall told the jury.

Epps was absolutely serious, he said, and went so far as to offer him an incentive.

"He stated to me, if I did it, he would pay me $50,000," Hall said.

Hall isn't the only witness to take the stand and relay stories of alleged threats.

Tamika Carter, who met Epps a few months before Angela's murder, said he often complained about his fiance and, on one occasion, the complaints turned ugly. Carter said Epps sent her a text in August of 2009, shortly before Angela's murder, that said, "I'm going to kill that ---."

She also testified about a bag that Epps left in her car the day of the murder, a bag other witnesses said contained guns, and about their conversations over his plans to set fire to his Amherst apartment house in order to collect on his renters' insurance.

Cheryl Meyers Buth, Epps' defense lawyer, has tried at every turn to discredit the prosecution's witnesses and challenge its interpretation of the evidence.

While cross-examining Carter, Buth suggested that Epps was simply venting when he texted her that day in August.

"He was frustrated with her," Buth said. "That was the context in which he texted you, correct?"

"Yes," said Carter.

Buth also tried to introduce evidence that might have bolstered her claim that someone else must have killed Angela, including letting the jury know that Sedita declined to prosecute Epps.

U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara ruled against her.

Buth would not comment on the DA's role in the case but, in court papers, claimed it's essential to determining Epps' guilt or innocence.

"The jury should be told that the defendant was first investigated by the Erie County District Attorney's office for murder and was not charged," she said in documents objecting to Arcara's ruling.

Sedita, who has been criticized by local law enforcement for what they call cherry-picking cases in order to keep his conviction rate high, has repeatedly declined to comment on the Epps case. He did, however, suggest at one point that the evidence may not be have been adequate to convict him.

"When the District Attorney's Office is provided sufficient evidence, we present that evidence to a grand jury," Sedita said of the Epps case three years ago.

Buth also wanted the jury to hear about Angela's lifestyle, including her alleged membership in "Elite," a female motorcycle group, and her ties to a male motorcycle group called "Cold Blooded Riders." In court papers, Buth claims Angela had a relationship with a member of the Cold Blooded Riders who was shot two days before she was murdered.

The trial resumes Monday.

email: pfairbanks@buffnews.com

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