Man pleads guilty in murder, beating

5/12/2008

Two cases that remained unsolved for years were resolved in Lucas County Common Pleas Court Monday when Raymond Cox pleaded guilty to one count of murder and one count of felonious assault.

Cox, 22, who is currently incarcerated on an involuntary manslaughter charge, appeared before Judge Ruth Ann Franks Monday afternoon. He was convicted of killing Theodore Goodacre, 53, and severely beating David Dusseau, 51.

An additional murder charge for the beating death of Reginald Darnell Jones, 37, will be dismissed at his May 30 sentencing.

The unrelated deaths date back to 1999, when Cox was only 14 years old.

Mr. Goodacre was found beaten to death in 1999 in East Toledo. Mr. Dusseau, was found beaten in his East Toledo home in July, 2002.

Cox is serving a nine year prison sentence at the Allen Correctional Institution in Lima, Ohio, for a 2002 involuntary manslaughter conviction. He is scheduled to be released in 2011.

As part of the plea agreement, the second murder charge against Cox will be dismissed and the prosecutor will recommend that Judge Franks sentence Cox to no more than four years for the felonious assault if the two sentences are to run consecutively. If Judge Franks runs the sentences consecutive to each other as well as consecutive to the sentence Cox is currently serving, he would be in prison for life with the first possibility of parole in 2030.

A co-defendant in the felonious assault case, Kevin Clapsaddle, is set to go to trial June 16 before Judge Linda Jennings.

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