An East Toledo man who was one of seven adults accused of murder in the December, 2022 deaths of two teenaged boys pleaded guilty Tuesday morning to reduced charges in Lucas County Common Pleas Court.
Cruz Garcia, 25, of the 1900 block of Greenwood Avenue, entered guilty pleas before Judge Lori Olender to two counts apiece of involuntary manslaughter and kidnapping, all first-degree felonies, in the disappearances and deaths of Kyshawn Pittman, 15, and Ke’Marion Wilder, 16.
Garcia’s lawyer, Mark Jacobs, said Garcia also had signed a separate plea agreement with prosecutors, the terms of which were not disclosed in open court.
Garcia had been charged with alternative, dual counts of aggravated murder and murder, along with the kidnapping counts, for the boys’ deaths.
No new details of the case’s circumstances were presented in court. Judge Olender granted the prosecutors’ motion to seal the new bill of information for manslaughter and the plea agreement.
Khaled Elwardany, the lead assistant prosecutor handling the case, said sealing those documents was “just to keep things secure until the completion of all the cases in this matter.”