East Toledoan receives life term

5/31/2008

The first time Raymond Cox raised his fists to crush the life out of another man, he was 14 years old and looking to experience what it was like to kill, authorities said.

Yesterday, Cox, now 22, was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of one man and the severe beating of another. He will not be eligible for parole until 2030.

Calling the former East Toledo man a "disturbing and violent offender," Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Ruth Ann Franks sentenced him to life in prison for the 1999 murder of Theodore Goodacre and to four years in prison for the 2002 felonious assault of David Dusseau.

The sentences were ordered to run consecutively and consecutive to the 9-year sentence imposed in 2002 for the death of Craig Coulter.

"He is a true sociopath in the sense that he shows no remorse for what he did," Assistant County Prosecutor Jeffrey Lingo said after the sentencing. "This is a very brutal person who committed face-to-face crimes. It's almost as if he enjoys beating people."

Cox pleaded guilty to the two charges May 12, resolving the cases that had remained unsolved for years.

He was indicted in November, 2007, after investigators with the county's cold-case unit linked him to Mr. Goodacre's murder with a bloody fingerprint found at the scene.

Cox admitted at the plea to using his fists to beat Mr. Goodacre while on top of the viaduct behind the McDonald's restaurant on Main Street in East Toledo. Two-and-a-half years later, Cox used a lead pipe to hit Mr. Dusseau in the head twice in Mr. Dusseau's Raymer Street address, believing him to be someone else, he said.

Authorities said both men were severely beaten, had multiple rib fractures, and blunt-force injuries. Mr. Goodacre, 53, who was described as a drifter from Tecumseh, Mich., was strangled.

A co-defendant in the felonious assault case, Cox's cousin, Kevin Clapsaddle, 22, of 470 Parker Ave., has pleaded not guilty to felonious assault for his role in the beating of Mr. Dusseau. Judge Linda Jennings has set a June 16 trial date.

An additional charge of murder - for the May, 2001, death of Reginald Darnell - was dismissed against Cox yesterday because of evidentiary reasons.

Judge Franks said that statements from an inmate Cox shared a cell with indicated that Cox said that he beat Mr. Goodacre because he wanted to experience what it felt like to kill someone. He also said that he has "so many bodies under my belt" and that he didn't believe that anyone would miss a "bum," Judge Franks said, reading from a report.

Cox has been incarcerated since his arrest in 2002 for the beating death of Mr. Coulter, 41, of 623 1/2 Platt St. He is serving nine years in prison at the Allen Correctional Institution in Lima after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

Defense attorney Adrian Cimerman said Cox had a disruptive upbringing that involved little involvement from his natural parents and being raised by other family members.

"He was an aggressive man," Mr. Cimerman said. "He doesn't appreciate what he did."