WAUSEON — An Archbold, Ohio, man who fatally shot a stranger who tried to intervene in an explosive domestic dispute was given the maximum sentence of 14 years in prison Friday.
Romauldo Cordoba, Jr., 39, was found guilty on Nov. 5 by a jury in Fulton County Common Pleas Court of involuntary manslaughter with a firearm specification for the April 25 death of Joshua McJilton, 27. He also was found guilty of a misdemeanor charge of domestic violence for threatening his wife, Melinda, that night.
Prosecutors said Cordoba was out looking for his wife when he saw her walking out of DB Downtown Billiards in Wauseon and getting in her car shortly after 1 a.m. He drove up behind her, blocked her car in, then approached the driver-side window with a gun that he used to pound on the window.
Mr. McJilton, a Marine veteran and Wauseon native who had been living in Oceanside, Calif., approached to try to defuse the situation but was shot by Cordoba, who claimed during his trial that he was afraid of Mr. McJilton and felt he had to defend himself.
While Mr. McJilton’s parents and grandmother expressed anger at Cordoba when given an opportunity to speak in court, his brother, Jason McJilton, quietly told the court he had just one thing to say.
“The main thing it comes down to is, what kind of world do we want to live in when we penalize the person who was trying to do the right thing, to try to defuse the situation?” he said. “And what kind of world is it when we let a person like that back into this world?”
Joyce McJilton said Cordoba had “torn the heart” out of her family when he killed her grandson, who was a husband and father, too.
“You’re a big macho man when you have a gun, but you’re a sniveling coward when you don’t have a gun,” she said.
While the jury did not find Cordoba guilty of murder — which would have resulted in a life sentence — Mrs. McJilton said in her mind Cordoba committed murder. He shot her grandson in the leg and, as he was falling to the pavement, he shot him again, Mrs. McJilton said.
“You were banging on your wife’s car window, and she was screaming for help,” she said. “He walked over nonchalantly and tried to solve that problem so that there would be no killing of your wife or yourself, and what did you do? You didn’t listen.”
Judge James Barber said there was little he could say that the family did not express.
He gave Cordoba the maximum sentence of 11 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter and three years for a firearm specification, citing his criminal record, a previous prison sentence, and a personal history that included fathering 10 children by four mothers.
“What I see here is frankly a lot of irresponsibility,” Judge Barber said. “You’ve heard the old adage that jealousy is the green monster. Well, on that night that old green monster had its clutches in you.”
For his part, Cordoba apologized to Mr. McJilton’s family and to his own family. He said he never intended to kill Mr. McJilton.
Contact Jennifer Feehan at: jfeehan@theblade.com or 419-213-2134.
First Published January 9, 2016, 5:00 a.m.
