'This sadness has not gone away': 10 years after pizzeria murder, family's grief remains
Ten years ago, John Deloney walked into a small, family-run pizza restaurant in Hartwell and fatally shot the owner during a robbery, as the owner's wife cowered behind a counter.
The devastation Deloney caused when he killed Richard Evans on June 15, 2013, is still felt by Evans' wife and their three children. When the shooting happened, the children were inside the restaurant, in a back room where they stayed while their parents worked. The oldest was 8.
After being shot, Evans managed to make his way outside but collapsed. The children watched their mother scream as their father died from his gunshot wounds, said a neighbor who happened to be driving by and stopped when she saw Evans' wife waving her hands.
Two of Evans' children read emotional statements in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Wednesday, where Judge Terry Nestor sentenced Deloney, now 38, to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 33 years.
"I became aware of how truly horrible the world could be when I was 5 years old," said Evans' daughter, Zoey.
Zoey said her childhood ended that day. People might think she is a happy person, she said, "but it's all a lie − a mask to protect me from the question, 'Are you OK?'"
Ashton, who was just 1 year old at the time, talked about wanting to hug her father one last time.
"I will be waiting for that moment when I see him up in heaven," she said.
'Everything ended'
Evans and his wife, Ao, met in Thailand, where she was born. They eventually moved to Cincinnati with a dream of opening a restaurant. Cosmic Pizza in Hartwell was the start of that dream, Ao said in a statement that was read in court by a friend. The couple planned to open a second location in Wyoming.
But "everything ended," Ao said, after her husband was killed.
Evans had handled everything and provided everything. Ao didn't have a driver's license or a cellphone. She had never paid bills or navigated the financial system, said Margot Madison, the neighbor who stopped that day to help.
Madison was part of a network of people who have helped Ao and her children in the years after the murder.
"Together, we helped Ao survive again," Madison said.
Ao and Richard Evans' oldest child, their son, was too emotionally overwhelmed to attend the sentencing.
In a statement read by a family friend, he said: "I have not been able to get over that day… No matter what I do, this sadness has not gone away."
Hamilton County Assistant Prosecutor Elizabeth Polston said she remains struck by the randomness of Deloney's decision to target the neighborhood business that day.
"It's terrible to think that in this tiny pizza place in the middle of Hartwell, something this horrific could happen," Polston said.
10-year wait for a resolution
The case against Deloney dates back to 2013, when he was charged and initially faced the death penalty. It was complicated by the fact that he refused to cooperate with experts or his attorneys who sought to have him declared intellectually disabled, making him ineligible for the death penalty.
A judge in 2015 did rule him intellectually disabled, but an appeals court reversed that decision. A 2019 ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court restructured the framework for determining intellectual disability, and Deloney’s case was re-examined.
Earlier this year, the 1st District Court of Appeals upheld a ruling by Nestor who found Deloney intellectually disabled.
At a trial in November, a jury found him guilty of aggravated murder and aggravated robbery. He faced a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, which prosecutors sought. Nestor sentenced him to 33 years to life, although Deloney was given credit for the 10 years he has spent in jail awaiting trial.
Deloney, who intends to appeal his conviction, spoke briefly in court. He said prosecutors had charged the wrong man.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Man sentenced for 2013 fatal shooting of Cincinnati pizzeria owner
