Ottawa man avoids trial with 11th-hour plea deal
Jun. 15—OTTAWA — An Ottawa man charged with eight assorted felony counts for allegedly assaulting his former girlfriend and attempting to burglarize her home reached an 11th-hour agreement with prosecutors, avoiding a jury trial that was to begin Tuesday in Putnam County Common Pleas Court.
Danny Ruiz, 46, of Ottawa, will be sentenced July 29 after pleading guilty to third-degree felony counts of burglary and violating a protection order and fourth-degree felony counts of trespassing in a habitation and grand theft of a motor vehicle.
Four counts were dismissed by the state as part of the plea agreement, and the burglary charge was reduced from a first-degree felony. Prosecutors have recommended a nine-year prison sentence, the maximum possible, be handed down by Judge Keith Schierloh.
Ruiz was indicted in December on charges of aggravated burglary, a felony of the first degree; felonious assault, a second-degree felony; domestic violence, a third-degree felony; grand theft of a motor vehicle, disrupting public services and trespass in a habitation, all felonies of the fourth degree; and two counts of violating a protection order, fifth-degree felonies.
Ruiz is alleged to have violated a protection order Dec. 5 when he attempted to inflict physical harm by choking his live-in girlfriend, Lindsay Quintero, at a residence on North Orchard Drive in Leipsic. It is further alleged that the incident occurred as Ruiz was committing or attempting to commit a felony act of burglary and while he was under the jurisdiction of a court restraining order.
Quintero was scheduled to testify during the trial via Zoom from the Hildago County Jail in Edinburgh, Texas, according to court records.
Ruiz is also alleged to have illegally entered a residence at 510 North St., Leipsic, two days prior to entering the North Orchard Drive residence and is said to have taken a 2004 Chevy Trailblazer without the owner's consent.
Ruiz previously entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity to the charges contained in the indictment. He was ordered to undergo a competency evaluation at the Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Toledo, where he was found competent to stand trial. It was determined that at the time of the alleged incidents Ruiz was able to distinguish the wrongfulness of his actions.
