Johnny S. Clarke & Lisa Straub- young Ohio couple murdered

[Duchess]

All 3 committed

Thanks, Sonny! Where the hell have you been?

Retired Toledo Police Lt. Frank Ramirez was ordered today to spend four years in prison for obstructing justice and tampering with evidence for his role in what prosecutors portrayed as a botched murder plot.

Ramirez, 60, of the 5900 block of Tetherwood Drive, also was convicted Sept. 7 by a jury of a first-degree misdemeanor charge of discharge of a firearm over a roadway. The jury acquitted Ramirez on more serious charges of attempted murder and felonious assault. He was sentenced to six months in the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio for the misdemeanor, but will be allowed to serve that concurrently with his prison term for the felony convictions.

Also today, Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Gene Zmuda sentenced John Clarke, 47, of the 400 block of Danberry Street, to four years in prison.

Clarke entered an Alford plea and was found guilty of felonious assault and a one-year firearm specification for firing a shot at Tiffany Williams Dec. 26, 2014. She was not injured.

Clarke's wife, Maytee Vazquez-Clarke, 45, entered an Alford plea and was found guilty of retaliation for her role in the incident. Judge Zmuda sentenced her to two years in prison.

After Vazquez-Clarke was sentenced and removed from the courtroom, Judge Zmuda granted her attorney's request that she be given time to arrange for the care of the couple's 13-year-old son.

The judge said she could report Wednesday morning to begin serving her prison sentence, but he rescinded that after deputies informed the court that Vazquez-Clarke had threatened to kill herself, according to her attorney, Jerome Phillips.

Prosecutors contended Clarke and his wife wanted to kill Ms. Williams because they believed she played a part in their son's murder. Ramirez, they alleged, was a friend who helped the Clarkes “hunt” Ms. Williams and others involved in the 2011 murder of Johnny Clarke, 21, and his girlfriend, Lisa Straub, 20, in Springfield Township.

On the night of the shooting, witnesses testified that Ramirez made arrangements for Ms. Williams to be at an address on Colburn Avenue in South Toledo then gave that information to the Clarkes who went to the location in their van.

Ramirez spent 31 years on the Toledo Police Department, retiring in 2015 after his indictment on the charges. As part of their plea agreements, both of the Clarkes testified at the Ramirez trial.

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