By CHRIS BUTLER

SEBRING — A new judge may be involved with Jean Claude Meus’ now five-year-old double vehicular homicide case in Hardee County, but his fiancé said his case remains forever tainted.

That’s unless “a truly fair and impartial” judge from anywhere other than Hardee County or the Tenth Judicial Circuit takes over, the Tennessee resident said Tuesday while visiting her sister in Sebring. 

Rebecca Chenoweth said her fiancé’s case has implications not just for Meus, but people everywhere.
She can also produce affidavits from two witnesses whose testimony would have kept Meus from being convicted, she said. One of the two witnesses saw her mother and sister killed in the 2001 traffic accident.

Both witnesses weren’t called as witnesses at Meus’ 2003 trial.
A jury convicted Meus on two counts of vehicular homicide in August 2003 in the deaths of Nona Moore, 40, and her 8-year-old daughter Lindsey. Moore was a well-known member of the Wauchula community.

“Jean Claude isn’t necessarily concerned about having another judge in Wauchula. But it’s my concern. ... We want someone who can actually be fair to hear it,” Chenoweth said.

Rebecca Chenoweth said Judge Marcus Ezelle’s personal and professional connections to the victims’ family should have kept him away from the case.

Judge Ezelle

According to documents from the 10th Judicial Circuit, Ezelle was involved with the case in January of this year when he dismissed Meus’ motion to hear both newly discovered evidence and claims of ineffective legal counsel during the trial.

Ezelle was not the presiding judge over Meus’ trial in which he was convicted and sentenced to two concurrent 15-year prison sentences. 
Chief Judge J. David Langford assigns judges within the district to different courts. He said earlier this month that Ezelle has now permanently recused himself from the Meus case.

Langford said the case has now been reassigned to Judge Jeff McKibben, the county judge in Hardee County.
Chenoweth said the state may be within its legal rights to assign McKibben, but she is also unhappy with him. 

“If you have a bathtub full of dirty water, it’s like putting another person in it to give them a bath. This is a huge injustice and Jean Claude and I aren’t stopping until it’s made right,” she said, adding the current legal definition of vehicular homicide is too vague and needs a clearer definition.
State attorneys said during the trial that Meus fell asleep at the wheel of his tractor-trailer, drove through a stop sign and overturned his vehicle on Moore’s van at Seven Mile Point, just outside Wauchula.

Meus said throughout his trial that he had not fallen asleep at the wheel. He said another vehicle had instead cut him off, causing him to swerve and send his tractor trailer onto the van.

Moore’s sisters, Dana Christensen and Beth Jahna, have already called for Meus’ release from prison. The pair said he shouldn’t do time for an accident.
Meus is currently serving out his sentence at the Sumter Correctional Institution in Bushnell. 

Affidavits

Chenoweth said she conducted a question and answer session Sunday night with almost 40 Highlands County residents interested in the case at an Avon Park restaurant.

She said many left the gathering convinced of Meus’ innocence and signaled their intention to write letters to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist.
“So many of them are angry. If something like this can happen to Jean Claude, they’re wondering if the same thing can happen to them,” Chenoweth said. 

Two sworn affidavits in her possession include those from Moore’s now 17-year-old daughter Ashley and Richard Grantham, who lived near the scene of the crash.
Moore said in her affidavit that she didn’t come forward earlier because she was initially traumatized by the loss of her mother and no one asked her to testify.

“My observation is that prior to the collision, I was seated in the front passenger’s seat when my mom and I heard Mr. Meus blowing his horn repeatedly as he was in the oncoming traffic lane before his truck turned over,” Moore said in her 2007 affidavit.

Grantham said he witnessed the accident from his mobile home. He said he heard Meus’ truck downshifting near a stop sign when he heard a loud banging sound. That was followed by the sight of a white pickup truck going 60-70 miles per hour. He said the white pickup’s engine was making “a funny noise.”
“I also recall that the pickup truck must have driven right past the accident scene right about the time of the accident,” Grantham said in his January 2007 affidavit.

He said he told all of this to police officers at the scene. He said he doesn’t know Meus personally.
Meanwhile, Chenoweth is asking that anyone wanting to get involved on her fiancé’s behalf e-mail her at .