Guilty plea in decades-old Warren County cold case
For Richard Woods' family, Sam Perone's guilty plea merely confirmed what they had long ago accepted as truth.
They gained no pleasure, they said, from an 11-year prison sentence handed down by Warren County Court of Common Pleas Judge Donald E. Oda's II. That wasn't going to bring back their beloved husband and father who, in October of 1992, was shot twice in the back of the head during a business dispute with Perone.
"We don't seek vengeance or retribution. That's not who we are," Sue Woods-Schneier, Woods' widow, said in a statement from the witness stand.
What Woods' family wanted – what they truly needed – was to see and hear Perone confess.
"In a trial, we might not get that. We might not get a guilty plea out of him," said Woods-Schneier. "For Sam to admit it, you know, that he did do it and all the things he did do."
The family received the justice they sought Tuesday when Perone agreed to a plea deal, and said the word "guilty" in court.
Decades-old Warren County mystery solved?
Perone pleaded guilty to one charge each of voluntary manslaughter, a first-degree felony, and gross abuse of a corpse, a fifth agree penalty. He'll serve an 11-year prison term counting a year of time already served for the voluntary manslaughter charge and a concurrent 12-month term for the second charge.
In exchange, Warren County Prosecutor David P. Fornshell's office agreed to forego prosecution of Perone's wife, Debbie Perone, for any role she might have played in the death and disposal of Woods' body in 1992, Fornshell said.
Fornshell recapped his office's years-long investigation into the death, as well as his rationale for agreeing to the deal when approached by defense attorneys in the last month.
Fornshell said the passage of time added pressure to reach a resolution. A sheriff's deputy considered a key witness in the case died earlier this year, Fornshell said, and more complications of that variety could arise.
"Inconsistencies can develop and memories can fade. That could have been a challenge at trial," he said.
"This plea agreement was done in consultation and with agreement of the entire Dick Woods family," Fornshell said during his post-hearing press conference. "It gives them the resolution they've been looking for for over 24 years, and that is Sam Perone standing up in court and pleading guilty for killing their husband and their father."
Perone was arrested Oct. 8, 2015 in Arizona, where he had lived for several years. He was jailed and later extradited to Ohio.
Woods' body was found in the Warren County's rural Washington Township about a month after he disappeared from Lebanon. First, detectives found his car. Then, his empty wallet.
The 41-year-old furniture salesman, of Dublin, Ohio, was found shot in the head. The father of four was in the area to discuss a business venture, according to Enquirer archives.
Enquirer reporter Keith BieryGolick contributed.