Pair indicted in connection to Elyria murder

A pair of young adults were indicted Nov. 15 on murder charges in Lorain County Common Pleas Court in connection to the death of 38-year-old Barry Allen Spreng Jr. of Oberlin.

Phillip H. Tucker, 21, of Paso Robles, Calif., is facing two counts of aggravated murder, three counts of murder, two counts of aggravated robbery, two counts of felonious assault and single counts of theft and receiving stolen property.

All of the counts except for theft also bear a specification that the offenses took place in a school safety zone.

Gloria L. Watton, 18, of Prescott, Ariz., is facing two counts of complicity to murder, two counts of complicity to aggravated robbery, two counts of complicity to felonious assault and a single count of complicity to theft.

All of the counts except for complicity to theft also bear a specification that the offense took place in a school safety zone.

They will be arraigned Nov. 29 in Lorain County Common Pleas Court.

At 2:21 a.m. Sept. 5, officers responded to Windsor Elementary School, 264 Windsor Drive in Elyria, for a report of a person who was passed out in the school parking lot, according to an Elyria police report.

Officers found Spreng lying in the parking lot on the northwest side of the school.

Spreng was stabbed multiple times and he was pronounced dead after the arrival of emergency medical services, according to police.

That same day, police issued warrants for the arrest of Tucker and 19-yearold Joshua Hohn, of Elyria.

Watton also was named as a “person of interest” in the case.

Tucker and Hohn were apprehended the next day after crashing Spreng’s gray 2007 Hyundai Sonata in Canadian County, Okla., during a pursuit by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

Both men were hospitalized after the crash, but Tucker was released a short time later to the custody of the Canadian County Sheriff’s Office, while Hohn still was in critical condition, said John Bridges, major of operations for the Canadian County Sheriff’s Office.

Bridges said the men were tracked to the area by tracking their cellphone signal.

Hohn is expected to be indicted once he is released from the hospital, court personnel said.