Siblings who cut down, sold 200-year-old Metroparks tree guilty of felony theft

A brother and sister who hired a company to cut down a 200-year-old black walnut tree on Cleveland Metroparks’ property last year have pleaded guilty to a felony theft charge.

Todd Jones, 57, of Bay Village and Laurel Hoffman, 54, of Elyria agreed to repay the Metroparks $20,000 as part of the plea deal, which the pair entered Wednesday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.

Judge Timothy McCormick ordered the pair to serve six months in the Cuyahoga County Jail, but he suspended the sentence. The pair will not have to serve jail time.

Prosecutors said Jones and Hoffman hired a tree felling company in September to cut down the tree that was located about 7 feet from Jones’ property line in the Mill Stream Run Reservation in Strongsville. Jones told the company, including in writing, that the tree was on his property, prosecutors said.

After the tree was cut down, Jones and Hoffman sold it to a Geauga County saw mill for $2,000, prosecutors said.

Metroparks rangers learned of the tree being cut down more than a week later.

The park estimated that the tree was worth about $28,000 and said that it cost more than $100,000 to clean up the area because of the mess the tree left behind.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley in a statement announcing the guilty plea called the Metroparks system the region’s “greatest community asset.”

“These siblings purposefully destroyed invaluable park property for their own personal profit, and we cannot allow those destructive actions to occur without consequence,” O’Malley said.

In interviews earlier this year, Jones and Hoffman told cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer that they believed the tree belonged to them. Jones owns property adjacent to the park and said his family for years believed the tree was inside their property lines.

“There was no ill intent,” Jones said.