CLEVELAND — Emotions ran high in a Cuyahoga County courtroom Thursday when a judge handed down sentences for three men convicted in the kidnapping, torture and killing of a Bedford man and his 14-year-old daughter.
In October 2013, investigators say Paul Bradley and his daughter Paris Bradley were forced from their beds during a robbery. Police then believe Paris was tortured and eventually shot three times in the head in front of her father. Evidence suggests Paul Bradley was still alive when he was bound and burned in a car with his daughter’s body. Bradley’s burning rental car was found in an abandoned lot in East Cleveland.
Photo of burned car where two bodies were discovered.
“I can remember feeling my heart break into a billion pieces,” one of the victims' family members said during the sentencing hearings for Ronald Newberry, Kodii Gibson and Demarcus Sheeley.
Several family members gave victim impact statements during the proceedings, detailing the pain from losing Paul and Paris and imploring the judge to impose long sentences for the co-defendants.
“It is still unfair because they’ll still get to see their families. We will never see Paul and Paris again. All we have are pictures, videos and a tombstone at a grave,” one family member said tearfully.
Another added, “I was hoping this day would bring me closure. But as we stand here today for sentencing, I realize we have received a life sentence ourselves.”
On March 16, the jury returned a guilty verdict for Ronald Newberry, 27, on multiple charges, including aggravated murder, kidnapping and aggravated burglary.
Judge Kelly Ann Gallagher on Thursday sentenced Newberry, of East Cleveland, to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 60 years.
One of Newberry's co-defendants, Kodii Gibson, 25, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 50 years. He was indicted on charges including aggravated murder, kidnapping, aggravated burglary, aggravated arson, felonious assault and having weapons under disability. A jury determined he aided and abetted in the crime.
Gibson was the only one of the three men to read his own statement, apologizing to both the Bradley family and his own family.
“Like a tidal wave, my choices and actions have rippled through the Bradleys' home and my own,” he said.
Demarcus Sheeley, 28, a third co-defendant, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, with up to five years of post-release control. He was indicted on similar charges as Gibson and Newberry, but his murder charges were amended to involuntary manslaughter with a firearms specification.
Following Sheeley's sentencing, emotions spilled over and a shouting match ensued between the defendants' and victims' families. Deputies cleared the courtroom as the hearing ended.
At the time of the murders on Oct. 10, 2018, investigators called it one of the most heinous crimes they've worked.
"The fact that you would torture a 14-year-old girl, shoot her three times in the head, by all indication you know Paris was shot while Paul was still alive and Paul was burned alive, that just takes a peculiar personality to do that," said Commander Scott Gardner of the East Cleveland Police Department.
Newberry turned himself in after a manhuntalong with Gibson and Sheeley.
Both Newberry and Gibson's legal teams said their clients plan to appeal their life sentences.
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