A judge on Thursday handed down life sentences to two men and ordered another to spend 15 years in prison for kidnapping a 14-year-old Ohio girl and her father, then shooting the girl and burning the father to death during a robbery attempt in 2018.
Ronald Newberry, Kodii Gibson and Demarcus Sheeley broke into Paul Bradley’s home, bound him with extension cords and beat him while demanding money. They then kidnapped Bradley and his daughter, Paris Bradley, and drove them around for five hours before killing Paris and setting fire to Bradley’s car in a vacant East Cleveland lot.
Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Gregory Paul said during the hearing that the crimes were the result of “a barbarism that I cannot explain.”
Newberry and Gibson, who were each convicted of aggravated murder and other charges in separate trials, each received a life sentence. Gallagher ordered Newberry to spend 65 years behind bars until he is eligible for parole. Gibson must serve 50 years before he could first be released.
Gallagher sentenced Sheeley, who pleaded guilty last week to involuntary manslaughter, to 15 years in prison. Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley’s office and Sheeley’s defense attorneys agreed to the sentence as part of the plea deal that saw them drop aggravated murder, kidnapping and other charges.
Gallagher said she understood the sentence “may not seem appropriate, but [it] is the recommended sentence.”
After Bradley’s girlfriend noted during Sheeley’s sentencing that Bradley was 39 and lived “39 good years,” Sheeley, who nodded his head during the hearing and declined to speak, turned to his family and said, “I’ll be back at 39.”
Sheeley will receive credit for nearly three years and is eligible for release after serving 12 years.
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A member of Bradley’s family rushed toward him and exchanged words with Sheeley’s family. A sheriff’s deputy restrained the woman and the two families yelled at each other. Deputies said someone spit toward Sheeley’s family and someone else threw a shoe that struck an assistant prosecutor on the case during the eruption.
Deputies kept the two families separated as they left the courtroom.
Bradley’s sister, girlfriend, two daughters and son described him as a devoted father who was adored by his 14 children, and the backbone of the family.
Paris was a joyful, outgoing honor student who ran track and blossomed into a mature young woman in her freshman year at high school, they said.
Bradley’s younger children still struggle to understand why their father and sister were killed. Paris’ 4-year-old brother woke up on her birthday three months after her death and urged his mother to go to the store to get her a birthday present, Bradley’s sister said.
“It’s still unfair because they’ll get to see their family,” Bradley’s girlfriend said of Newberry, Gibson and Sheeley. “We’ll never be able to see Paul and Paris again. All we have are pictures and videos and a tombstone at a grave.”
The woman told Gallagher she wanted the men to never be released.
“They went to unspeakable measures to cover-up what they did and make sure they’ll never be here in front of you,” she said. “Thankfully it didn’t work.”
Newberry did not speak at his sentencing hearing. His attorney, Kevin Spellacy, said he plans to appeal his conviction.
Gibson apologized to the Bradleys and to “the community.” He said he did not mean for anyone to die that night, and wished he could have stopped it from happening.
“Like a tidal wave, my choices have rippled through the Bradley’s homes and my own,” he said, reading from a written statement. “For that, I’ll always be sorry.”
A jury on March 16 convicted Newberry of multiple counts of aggravated murder, kidnapping and aggravated arson. Gibson was convicted of similar counts in December.
Sheeley, who was set to go to trial on Monday, struck a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty March 18 to two counts of involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors dismissed aggravated murder, kidnapping and other charges against Sheeley in exchange for his plea.
O’Malley’s office originally sought charges against all three men that carried the death penalty if convicted. A jury rejected the death penalty against Gibson, who was the first to go trial, after finding he was not the principal offender. Jurors instead recommended a sentence of life with the possibility of parole after 30 years for each killing.
O’Malley’s office then dismissed the capital charges against Newberry and Sheeley.
Gibson confessed to participating in the crime in a more-than-two-hour interview with East Cleveland police detectives, but investigators still do not know many details of the crime.
Gibson identified Sheeley as the shooter in his statement, but Paul said investigators could not determine who killed Paris.
“I would love to be able to turn to the Bradley family and tell them who shot Paris, but I’ll never be able to do that,” Paul said.
Gibson told investigators that Newberry called him on Oct. 9, 2018 and asked if he wanted to help rob Bradley.
“It ain’t gonna be nothing major, nothing too crazy,” Gibson recalled Newberry telling him, according to court filings.
Bradley’s relatives said they believed that Sheeley was the one who killed Paris, and that 15 years in prison was not enough time.
Jack Casino records showed that Bradley gambled more than $3 million at the Jack Casino in the previous three years. His girlfriend testified that gambling was Bradley’s main source of income.
A few weeks before the shooting, Bradley called the woman to meet him at a motel in Independence and gave her a duffel bag full of $345,000 in cash, she said. Ohio Highway Patrol Troopers pulled her over as she drove and searched her van, and seized the money, she said.
The girlfriend testified that Bradley was not overly upset about losing the cash.
Prosecutors have not said how Newberry, Sheeley and Gibson knew Bradley or knew that he had money.
Gibson said he, Newberry and Sheeley drove to Bradley’s house on Gould Avenue in Bedford on Oct. 10, 2018 to carry out the robbery plan. When they got there, they saw Paris walk outside to a car parked in the driveway and grab her book bag, then walk back inside, records say.
The men did not cancel their plan, and returned later that night.
Newberry and Sheeley helped Gibson crawl through a window, then he unlocked the back door to let Newberry and Sheeley in. They rifled through the basement, then headed upstairs to where Bradley and his daughter were in their beds, prosecutors said. The assailants kidnapped each at gunpoint and asked Bradley where his money was, prosecutors said.
The men did not wear face coverings during the attack, prosecutors said.
Bradley said he didn’t have any, and Newberry beat him. The three stole a designer belt, wristwatch and Bradley’s Playstation 4 from his room. Then, prosecutors said, they tied up Bradley with extension cords and tape and covered his head with a shirt before forcing him and Paris outside. They escorted Paul Bradley into his Buick, and Newberry and Sheeley got in with him and drove away. Gibson put Paris into his car and followed.
They drove to an abandoned house in East Cleveland, where prosecutors said they decided to kill the father and daughter.
Gibson called his girlfriend and asked for a gas can, then drove to a gas station and filled it up, prosecutors said. Newberry and Sheeley put Paris into the backseat of the Buick next to her father, and one of the men shot her, prosecutors said.
Bradley was badly beaten but still alive, prosecutors said.
Newberry drove the car to Savannah Avenue, parked it in the back of a vacant lot and set fire to the car.
The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office said Bradley died of a combination of blunt force trauma and smoke inhalation from the fire. Paris died of a gunshot to the head.
The crime lasted more than five hours.
Source: Cleveland.com
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