Toledo inmate sentenced to life in prison for killing cellmate

10/16/2013
BLADE STAFF

A convicted murderer who killed his cellmate at Toledo Correctional Institution was sentenced today to a life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Dustin Lynch, 26, pleaded no contest and was found guilty Oct. 2 of aggravated murder in the March 17 death of Arturo Lopez, 43, formerly of Port Clinton.

Lopez was strangled with a rope Lynch had him make. Lynch also carved the word “CHOMO” – a reference to child molester – into Lopez’s back.

The homicide was the second this year at the Toledo prison, which has since experienced two additional slayings of inmates.

In sentencing Lynch, Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Gary Cook said he read statements Lynch once made about wanting to sell his story and profit from his crimes. He ordered Lynch to pay the maximum $25,000 fine saying that if he ever found a way to do that, he would have to pay the fine.

Lynch was in prison serving a 20-year to life sentence for killing a 17-year-old girl in her Medina County home in 2002 when he killed Lopez.