The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
3 men indicted in Elyria murder-for-hire
3 Cuyahoga County men accused of killing a Lakewood man behind an Elyria convenience store were indicted.
The three Cuyahoga County men accused of killing a 47-year-old Lakewood man behind an Elyria convenience store July 6 were indicted in Lorain County Common Pleas Court.
Bruce Arnoff, 56, of Solon, was indicted Sept. 14 on three counts of complicity to aggravated murder, six counts of complicity to murder, six counts of complicity to felonious assault and two counts of tampering with evidence in the shooting death of Willie M. Fisher. The complicity counts each carry single firearm specifications.
Patrick L. Gall, 19, of East Cleveland, was indicted on a single count of aggravated murder, two counts of murder, two counts of felonious assault and a single count of tampering with evidence. The murder and felonious assault charges each carry single firearm specifications.
John P. Sullivan, 30, of East Cleveland, was indicted on one count of aggravated murder, two counts of murder, two counts of felonious assault
and single counts of tampering with evidence. All but the tampering charge carries single firearm specifications.
Police said Arnoff paid Sullivan and Gall to cause “serious physical harm” to Fisher which resulted in the man’s death.
Fisher’s body was found July 6 behind a convenience store in the 1400 block of East Avenue with multiple gunshot wounds.
Detectives Arnoff hired Fisher to do landscaping work at the business.
Sullivan and Gall were stopped at 8:06 p.m. on the day of the shooting by a Brooklyn Police Department officer while traveling at a high rate of speed eastbound on Interstate 480 in a 2003 BMW, authorities said.
During the stop, Gall identified himself as another
East Cleveland man leading to a warrant being issued for the other man.
The man later turned himself in to police and was released and a warrant was issued for Gall, police said.
Elyria police Capt. Christopher Costantino said Arnoff hired the other two men to harm Fisher because he was angry with him.
After a standoff at a home in the 14100 block of Savannah Avenue in East Cleveland, Gall was taken into custody by the U.S. marshals and Cleveland SWAT, authorities said.
Arnoff is being held on $2.03 million bond; Gall on a $2 million bond; and Sullivan on a $2.5 million bond at the Lorain County Jail.
They are scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 20.