Dayton triple homicide suspect pleads guilty, avoids death penalty

Muhammad Shabazz Ali will spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty to the August 2016 killing of three people and agreeing to a sentence without the possibility of parole.

The 62-year-old Dayton man’s plea Friday enabled him to remove the death penalty as a possibility that he may have faced if he was convicted at trial in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court.

Ali’s prison term is three life sentences without the possibility of parole plus 20 years. Ali previously served more than two decades in prison for killing a pregnant girlfriend.

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Ali pleaded guilty to six counts including three for aggravated murder for the Aug. 10, 2016 shooting deaths of 74-year-old Jasper Taylor, 53-year-old Tammy Cox and 25-year-old Michael Cox inside 35 Oxford Ave. in Dayton. Judge Michael Krumholtz found Ali guilty on all six counts.

“You didn’t have to kill my dad,” Jasper Taylor’s son Michael Taylor said while looking straight at Ali, later adding, “I see both of you guys lost because you’re going to prison for your life … and my dad is dead.

“All I can say is that I’ll be able to sleep good at night knowing that you’ll never get out to hurt another person again.”

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Arryiss Richardson, the girlfriend of Michael Cox and the person who prosecutors said was forced into a room with her 7-year-old daughter before the shooting, said she was glad Ali didn’t get the death penalty.

“It would have been the easy way out,” Richardson said. “I have sleepless nights. I have flashbacks. And you should have them, too.”

Asked by the judge if there was anything he wanted to say, Ali said, “No.” Earlier, Ali answered, “guilty” for his pleas on each count.

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Ali admitted he shot to death the three people around 3 p.m. Aug. 10, 2016, hours after he was released from Grandview Hospital, according to police.

Ali had been taken to Grandview by Dayton police, who “pink-slipped” him so he could get in-patient treatment. Police use so-called pink slips when they believe a suspect needs a mental health evaluation.

Dayton police picked up Ali after he caused a disturbance at Day-Mont Behavioral Health Care which included Ali yelling about not being able to get his medicine.

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Montgomery County assistant prosecutor Dan Brandt said the agreement included Ali’s guilty pleas for three counts of aggravated murder with firearm specifications plus individual counts of kidnapping, failure to comply and having weapons under disability.

Brandt said that in exchange for the pleas, prosecutors would dismiss the aggravated murder circumstances and repeat violent offender specifications and the other counts in the indictment.

Brandt said Ali had mental health issues and the facts of the case made it a good fit for a plea: “He had some built-in possible mitigation, if you will, when it comes to what a jury would be hearing and what their findings might be in death penalty case.”

RELATED: Woman says her sister was Ali’s victim in 1988

Ali — who police and court reports indicate used to be named Robert W. Ford Jr. — served more than 20 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter after he was convicted of killing his pregnant girlfriend in 1988.

Defense attorneys Michael Pentecost and Marshall Lachman filed a motion Thursday asking the court to waive any financial sanctions.

The memo said Ali is indigent and has no assets for which to satisfy any financial sanction. Prosecutors objected to the defense’s waiver of restitution.

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Krumholtz denied the defense motion and said Ali is capable of making some payments. The judge ordered restitution of $8,411.91 for Jasper Taylor’s funeral expenses.

An amended civil suit filed last year claims Ali was improperly discharged from health care facilities due to negligence.

According to the amended complaint filed in October, a social worker’s consultation note about whether to release Ali from Grandview didn’t include anything about Ali’s previous conviction for voluntary manslaughter.

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