Authorities in Ohio arrested a divorce attorney, alleging that he murdered one of his clients because he did not want to go to trial.
Gregory Moore, now 51, is accused of chasing Aliza Sherman, 53, outside his downtown Cleveland law office in 2013 and stabbing her to death. Moore’s motive, according to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, was to incapacitate her so Sherman’s divorce case could not be tried as scheduled.
Moore was indicted on Friday for aggravated murder, conspiracy, and kidnapping. According to the indictment, Sherman was scheduled to meet Moore at his office around 4:30 p.m. on March 24, 2013, to discuss her case, which was set to go to trial the next day.
The attorney instructed Sherman to call him once she was outside the office, and he would let her in. But it was a meeting “Moore never intended to have,” prosecutors claimed.
According to authorities, the attorney was unprepared for her trial and had a history of finding ways to postpone his court appearances. Moore had previously made three separate bomb threats to courthouses where he was scheduled to appear. According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, he eventually pleaded guilty and received a six-month jail sentence.
On the day in question, Sherman texted Moore shortly before 4:30 p.m. to inform him that she had arrived at his office and would wait in her car until he arrived. However, Sherman was unaware that Moore had turned off his phone, preventing law enforcement from tracking him down later, according to police.
The lawyer allegedly used a company hotspot to text Sherman that he was “here.” Sherman, perplexed by his refusal to let her in, texted that she was going to walk back to her car because it was cold outside.
But prosecutors say either Moore or a “unknown conspirator” approached Sherman from behind, chased her down the street, and stabbed her ten times. Moore allegedly kept texting Sherman, asking where she was, if she was going to meet with him, and when she was going to call him, in order to confuse investigators further.
Sherman called police for assistance, and a passerby dialed 911 after seeing her lying on the sidewalk. She was rushed to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead.
Moore entered his office building through a back entrance to avoid detection while cops investigated the scene, according to the indictment. According to police, he turned on his phone and continued to call Sherman as if he was unaware of the assault.
Moore switched cellphones in the days that followed. The divorce case was dismissed without a trial. Her estranged husband died last year, according to the Plain Dealer.
Moore was suspected by investigators for quite some time.
“This doesn’t surprise me,” Ed Tomba, the Cleveland Police Department’s initial lead investigator, told the Plain Dealer. “I had suspicions, but we didn’t have any evidence. When confronted with an aggravated murder charge, you must be extremely cautious.”
Prosecutors did charge Moore with lying to police about her death. He pleaded guilty to both that charge and the bomb threats.
Moore was arrested near Austin, Texas, on Friday. He will be arraigned once he returns to Ohio.
“The Sherman family has waited over a decade for answers regarding their mother’s homicide,” Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael C. O’Malley stated. “Through the tenacious work of multiple law enforcement agencies, evidence was accumulated that paints the unmistakable picture that Gregory Moore orchestrated and participated in the brutal murder of Aliza Sherman.”
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations took over the case in 2021. Sherman’s murder was also covered on NBC’s Dateline.
Sherman, a mother of four, was a nurse at the Cleveland Clinic.