Ashley Biggs: Murder, Custody Dispute, and Conviction

The murder of Ashley Biggs happened on June 20, 2012, in New Franklin, Ohio, when the 25-year-old Army veteran and Domino’s Pizza delivery driver was lured to the parking lot of a closed business by a fake order, then beaten and strangled by her ex-boyfriend Chad Cobb. His wife at the time, Erica Stefanko, placed the call that drew Biggs there. The killing grew out of a bitter custody fight over the daughter Biggs and Cobb shared. Cobb pleaded guilty and is serving life without parole; Stefanko was convicted twice, the second time after her first conviction was reversed on appeal, and is serving life with parole eligibility after 30 years.

Who Ashley Biggs Was

Ashley Nicole Biggs was born on January 9, 1987, and grew up in Jackson Township, Ohio. She served in the U.S. Army as a 92F, a petroleum supply specialist.¹ After leaving the military, she delivered pizza for Domino’s, in part to pay the legal fees in a custody battle over her daughter, Grace.² She was engaged to Brittney Dunson at the time of her death.

The Custody Fight Behind the Killing

Biggs and Chad Cobb had a daughter born in July 2005, and court records show a custody dispute between them that stretched back to at least January 2007.²³ Cobb had since married Erica Stefanko.

In October 2011, Biggs was granted temporary custody of her then-six-year-old daughter, whom she had not seen in at least two years. The ruling blindsided Cobb and Stefanko, and the months that followed brought a steady escalation. Cobb called police repeatedly to request welfare checks on the child at the apartment Biggs shared with Dunson; none produced any action. Stefanko was reported to have followed Biggs and Dunson home after school pickups.⁴ Chad Cobb’s mother, Cindee Cobb, later testified that having both spouses’ partners involved only inflamed things: “I think things would have gone better if it were two parties instead of four.”²

By June 2012, Cobb and Stefanko had secured visitation. The daughter was in their care the night Biggs was killed.⁴

How the Murder Happened

On the evening of June 20, 2012, Stefanko called Domino’s and placed a delivery order under a false name to 647 West Turkeyfoot Lake Road in New Franklin, the address of a vacant business.² The order was assigned to Biggs.

Cobb was waiting in the dark, empty lot when she pulled in. He used a stun gun on her, then beat her. According to his own trial testimony, Stefanko then placed industrial-sized zip ties around Biggs’ neck, hands, and feet. Biggs died of strangulation. Stefanko’s four young children were in the family SUV during the attack.⁵

Biggs’ body was loaded into her own car and driven to a cornfield, where it was dumped. After a missing person report was filed, New Franklin police reached the Turkeyfoot Lake Road address around 12:45 a.m. on June 21, 2012, and found a pool of blood, drag marks, stun gun components, and scattered cash. Officers found Cobb hiding in woods on his grandparents’ nearby property, covered in blood.²

Chad Cobb’s Guilty Plea and Life Sentence

In February 2013, Cobb pleaded guilty to aggravated murder, kidnapping, domestic violence, aggravated robbery, felonious assault, retaliation, tampering with evidence, abuse of a corpse, and possession of criminal tools.⁶ The deal took the death penalty off the table. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.⁷

More than a decade later, in October 2024, Cobb tried to withdraw his plea. He testified that his original attorney had told him that if he did not plead guilty, his children would be adopted out and lost to his family for good.⁷ In July 2025, Summit County Judge Jennifer Towell denied the motion, finding no “manifest injustice” and pointing to records of the original plea hearing that showed Cobb understood the consequences and had expressed satisfaction with his lawyers at the time.⁸

Erica Stefanko’s Long Road to Conviction

Stefanko was not charged right away. Lead investigator Detective Michael Hitchings later testified that he suspected her from the start but did not have enough evidence to indict.² That changed with new witness statements and a secretly recorded conversation.

The Secret Recording

In March 2014, Cindee Cobb secretly recorded a nearly three-hour conversation with Stefanko.² Stefanko admitted placing the fake pizza order and said she “did what Chad had told her to do.” She also said, “If everything had been told exactly as it happened, we both would be in prison right now,” “It took two of us,” and “Every time I hear a siren, I think, ‘They’re coming for me.'”⁹ Cindee Cobb did not turn the recording over to police until 2018. She testified that she had not initially recognized its significance and “had a lot going on in her life.”

A friend of Cobb’s, Mary Brinkman, also told the court that at a dinner about two weeks after the murder, Stefanko admitted driving Cobb to the ambush, waiting for him, and then going with him to the cornfield where Biggs’ body was left.¹⁰ Defense attorneys attacked her credibility, noting her closeness to the Cobb family and her seven-year delay in reporting the dinner conversation.²

First Trial and Reversal

A Summit County jury convicted Stefanko of aggravated murder and murder on November 25, 2020. She was sentenced on July 30, 2021. On July 27, 2022, the Ninth District Court of Appeals reversed the judgment and ordered a new trial, finding that the trial judge had violated Stefanko’s Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses by allowing Chad Cobb to testify via video from prison without the required legal findings to justify remote testimony.¹¹ Because the reversal was on constitutional grounds and not an acquittal, the state was free to try her again.

Retrial and Second Conviction

Jury selection in the retrial began on January 9, 2024, before Judge Towell, with opening statements on January 22.¹² This time Cobb testified in person for more than six hours, describing tasing and beating Biggs and saying Stefanko applied the zip ties that strangled her. Stefanko took the stand in her own defense. She admitted placing the fake order but said she did not know anyone was going to be killed, claiming the plan had been to plant methamphetamine in Biggs’ car to damage her in the custody case.⁹ She also testified that she was not “sad the victim was dead.”

Prosecutors played portions of the secret recording and showed autopsy photographs to rebut the drug-planting defense.⁹ Defense attorney Jeff Laybourne argued there was no DNA tying Stefanko to the scene and that Cobb had acted alone. The daughter of Biggs and Cobb, who was seven at the time of the murder, testified that she overheard Stefanko place the fake order using a false name.¹³

On January 31, 2024, after deliberating over parts of two days, the jury found Stefanko guilty of aggravated murder and murder.⁹

Sentencing

Judge Towell sentenced Stefanko the next day, February 1, 2024. Prosecutors sought life without parole, with Assistant Prosecutor Brian LoPrinzi calling Stefanko a “master manipulator.” Laybourne asked for the minimum of 25 years to life, citing family support and a clean disciplinary record in custody since 2019.⁵

Biggs’ and Cobb’s daughter, now 18 and raised after the murder by her paternal grandmother Cindee Cobb, addressed Stefanko directly: “You are a killer. You had a plan and you followed through with it.” The judge sentenced Stefanko to life in prison with parole eligibility after 30 years.⁵

Where the Case Stands Now

Stefanko appealed her second conviction. In March 2026, a unanimous Ninth District Court of Appeals upheld it and denied a third trial. Judge Donna Carr wrote that the jury had “sufficient evidence” to convict and that Stefanko “failed to demonstrate that the jury lost its way.” The court pointed to physical evidence, including duct tape found on Biggs’ body that matched tape at the scene, and to the recorded conversation in which Stefanko implied both she and Cobb would be imprisoned if the full truth came out. Laybourne said Stefanko intends to seek review from the Ohio Supreme Court.¹⁴

Cobb remains imprisoned for life without the possibility of parole. His attorney indicated an intent to appeal the denial of his plea-withdrawal motion, though the status of that appeal is not clear from the record.⁴

1
Billow Funeral Homes. Ashley Biggs Obituary
2
Court TV. OH v. Erica Stefanko Pizza Delivery Murder Retrial
3
The Daily Record. Woman’s Body Found
4
Akron Beacon Journal. Erica Stefanko’s Retrial Begins in Pizza Delivery Murder Case
5
Akron Beacon Journal. Erica Stefanko Gets Life Sentence for Role in Pizza Delivery Murder
6
Court TV. Ohio Man Asks to Withdraw Guilty Plea in Pizza Delivery Murder
7
Court TV. Chad Cobb’s Request to Withdraw Guilty Plea Denied
8
Cleveland 19 News. Summit County Judge Denies Motion to Withdraw Guilty Plea
9
Akron Beacon Journal. Erica Stefanko Convicted in Second Trial for Pizza Delivery Murder
10
Court TV. Woman Accused in Murder of Pizza Delivery Driver
11
FindLaw. State v. Stefanko, Ninth District Court of Appeals
12
Court TV. Erica Stefanko Case Coverage
13
News 5 Cleveland. Rittman Woman Found Guilty in Second Trial of Pizza Delivery Driver’s Murder
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Akron Beacon Journal. Judge Denies Erica Stefanko Third Trial in Pizza Delivery Murder