Man pleads guilty to felony charges for attacking disabled man in Ravenna Township carjacking
A Cleveland man has pleaded guilty for assaulting an elderly disabled man during a carjacking and then leading police on a pursuit before attempting to carjack a second vehicle from a woman.
Ezequiel Vasquez, 26, pleaded guilty in Portage County Court of Common Pleas this week to second-degree felony assault, second- and third-degree felony robbery, third-degree felony failure to comply with the order or signal of a police officer, and fourth-degree felony grand theft. The second-degree felonies, along with the grand theft charge, include firearm specifications.
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Sentencing is pending completion of a presentencing investigation by the court's adult probation department. Vasquez could be sentenced to a maximum of 24½ to 32½ years in prison, according to court records.
He continues to be held on a $500,000 bond in Portage County Jail.
The Portage County sheriff's said it responded to a report that someone, later identified as Vasquez, threatened a 71-year-old disabled Ravenna Township man with a gun, then pulled the man from his 2021 Ford Escape, threw him to the ground and stole the SUV in the state Route 59 Walmart parking lot at around noon on Oct. 27. Information about the man's injuries was unavailable.
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It was reported that the SUV nearly struck a witness, another man, while it was leaving the parking lot.
Ravenna police said an officer spotted the Ford in the parking lot of the East Main Street Taco Bell while responding to a report that the SUV had been going through red lights and passing other vehicles. When the officer approached the vehicle on foot, Vasquez put it into reverse, forcing the officer to step out of the way. The SUV nearly struck the officer's cruiser and another vehicle before leaving the parking lot.
A pursuit then ensued involving multiple Ravenna police officers along a convoluted route on city streets, during which the SUV struck another vehicle in traffic.
Police temporarily lost sight of the SUV at one point, but bystanders pointed them in the direction it had gone and officers found it abandoned behind PNC Bank on East Main at Pratt Street.
Police said they saw Vasquez walking in front of the CVS store nearby. He refused orders to stop and take his hands out of his pckets, police said, and ran through the Taco Bell parking lot.
After attempts to stop Vasquez with an electric shock device and a police K-9 failed, he approached a car in the Walgreen's parking lot with a Ravenna woman in the driver's seat. Vasquez allegedly jumped through the open passenger window and began grabbing at the woman. As police officers grappled with him, an officer was accidentally shocked when a wire from a shock device wrapped around his leg, but police were eventually able to get handcuffs on Vasquez and took him into custody.
As part of a plea deal, additional felony robbery, theft, receiving stolen property, and possession of a deadly weapon while under detention — a shank in Portage County Jail — and misdemeanor leaving the scene of an accident and resisting arrest charges in a grand jury indictment and supplemental indictment were dismissed.
Reporter Jeff Saunders can be reached at jsaunders@recordpub.com.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Man admits assaulting disabled man during carjacking
