A fierce, snapping cold hung in the air and blankets of snow still covered the buildings and sidewalks in downtown Cleveland on March 24, 2013, when police, responding to calls of a woman screaming, found the body of Aliza Sherman covered in blood and multiple stab wounds in the area of 75 Erieview Plaza, near the intersection of East 12th Street and the Galleria at Erieview.

The 53-year-old in-vitro fertilization nurse, who worked at Cleveland Clinic and was a mother of four from Beachwood, later died from her injuries at MetroHealth Medical Center that same day.

Now 13-and-a-half years later, the man accused of killing Sherman will stand trial, expected to begin at 9 a.m. Sept. 14 in Room 20C in the Justice Center at 1200 Ontario St. in downtown Cleveland.

Gregory Moore, the attorney who was hired by Sherman to represent her in a divorce from her husband, Dr. Sanford Sherman, will go before Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Kira Krivosh and a jury of his peers, who will decide if the 52-year-old Sagamore Hills resident is guilty in connection with her murder.

Moore was arrested in Texas and was indicted on May 2, 2025, on 10 criminal counts – one count of aggravated murder, one count of conspiracy, six counts of murder and two counts of kidnapping – in Sherman’s killing. He pleaded not guilty.

Sherman was in the process of getting a divorce from her husband, who died in July 2024, and had hired the Stafford Law Firm in Cleveland to advocate for her during her divorce trial. Moore was representing Sherman after her original attorney, Joseph G. Stafford, had his law license suspended.

Prosecutors allege Moore had arranged for Sherman to meet him outside the law offices at 4:30 p.m March 24. He then delayed the meeting, sending a series of text messages to bring Sherman downtown from her Beachwood home, and keep her waiting outside the door to the locked office building, believing Moore to be inside waiting to meet with her.

Sherman was attacked around 5:22 p.m., according to prosecutors, chased and stabbed before the perpetrator left on foot. Moore continued to text and call Sherman at least nine times, to create “false evidence that Moore was unaware of Sherman’s assault,” prosecutors said.

On Sept. 8, less than a week before the start of the trial, Moore’s attorneys filed a motion asking for the trial to be continued, or delayed, because prosecutors are still giving them potential evidence in the case, materials it argues has been in its possesion “for years” but is still being produced as of Sept. 7, and they need more time to review and prepare a defense to this material before trial.

A notice of appeal was filed by the defense Sept. 8 , as well, with appellate attorney Joseph Patituce of Cleveland-based Patituce & Associates - Ohio Criminal Defense Attorneys filing an appeal of Krivosh’s Sept. 3 decision that denied the defense’s effort in a separate motion to disqualify lead prosecutor Kevin Filiatraut from the case.

As of press time on Sept. 9, Krivosh had not ruled on the motion to continue the trial, and the appeal had not affected the trial’s scheduled start date.

Timeline leading up to the trial of Gregory Moore in the Aliza Sherman murder on March 24, 2013

• March 24, 2013 – Cleveland police received a call reporting that a female was heard screaming in the area of 75 Erieview Plaza – about 300 feet away from the office of Aliza Sherman’s attorney, Gregory J. Moore. Aliza Sherman was found stabbed 11 times and was transported to MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, where she died as a result of her injuries.
• Jan. 28, 2016 – Gregory J. Moore, Sherman’s divorce attorney who replaced Joseph G. Stafford after his law license was suspended for one year, was indicted on seven charges connected to the murder investigation, including tampering with evidence, telecommunications fraud, possessing criminal tools, two counts of forgery, falsification and obscuring official business.
• May 1, 2017 – Moore pleaded guilty to one of the charges related to the murder investigation, a misdemeanor charge of falsification, and two related to charges regarding bomb threats to local courthouses in a separate case.
• May 23, 2017 – Moore was sentenced to six months in Cuyahoga County jail, three years of probation and 350 hours of court-ordered community work service.
• May 2, 2025 – Gregory J. Moore, 51, of Sagamore Hills, was arrested in Texas and was indicted on 10 criminal counts: one count of aggravated murder, one count of conspiracy, six counts of murder and two counts of kidnapping, all related to the March 24, 2013 murder of Aliza Sherman.
• May 28, 2025 – Moore’s defense team of Jon Paul Rion and Catherine H. Jackson of Rion, Rion & Rion, L.P.A., Inc. in Dayton entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf at his arraignment. Bond is set at $2 million.
• June 17, 2025 – At Moore’s first pretrial hearing at the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, an initial trial date of March 30, 2026 was set.
• July 3, 2025 – Moore posted a $2 million surety bond and, as a condition of his court-supervised release, was placed on GPS monitoring and other conditions.
• Jan. 8, 2026 – The trial of Moore was delayed from March to September after Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Kira Krivosh granted a request from both Cuyahoga County prosecutors and Rion to allow both sides more time to collect and analyze evidence crucial to the case. Moore waived his right to a speedy trial.
• April 22, 2026 – Cuyahoga County Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Filiatraut files a motion arguing there is no credibility to a previous claim by Moore’s defense team that Sanford Sherman killed his wife, Aliza Sherman, pushing back on a defense effort to challenge the case.
• April 30, 2026 – The family of Aliza Sherman files a civil lawsuit against Moore, Stafford Law Firm and 10 unnamed defendants.
• July 31, 2026 – Rion sent a courier to deliver a sealed envelope to Krivosh that contains data from a cellphone Moore gave to Ian Friedman, his attorney at Friedman & Frey L.L.C. prior to the firm merger with McCarthy, Lebit, Crystal & Liffman Co, LPA, during the bomb threat case, two-and-a-half months before Sherman’s death.
• Aug. 18, 2026 – Krivosh denies a motion made by Rion to dismiss the case because key people involved, namely Stanford Sherman, the “alternative suspect,” had died and that there is missing evidence, such as CCTV footage that captured the stabbing and phone records, that would dispute that Moore was the killer.
• Sept. 3, 2026 – Krivosh denied the defense’s motion to remove lead prosecutor Kevin Filiatraut from the case. Rion argued that Filiatraut colluded with McCarthy, Lebit, Crystal & Liffman Co., LPA, Moore’s defense counsel in the bomb threat case, to prejudice Moore and that Filiatraut’s alleged “violations” should be investigated by an outside body. Rion argued that because Moore’s phone in the bomb threat case was turned over to investigators for analysis two days after Friedman & Frey L.L.C. and McCarthy Lebit merged in 2014, Filiatraut’s conversations in 2025 and 2026 with McCarthy Lebit attorney Robert Glickman, both in person and by text, created a potential conflict and prejudiced Moore. Rion said Glickman had access to privileged information concerning Moore.

Source: The Samuel H. Miller | Keeping Our Words Alive Digital Archive of the Cleveland Jewish News at cjn.org/archive.

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