CLEVELAND — *Editor's Note: The video in the player above originally aired on April, 19, 2019.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael C. O'Malley announced Tuesday the sentencing of a Cleveland couple for their roles in the death of a four-year-old Eliazar Ruiz.
After a jury convicted Romaine Tolbert, 38, of numerous counts, including involuntary manslaughter, kidnapping and endangering children, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
His wife, Joanne Vega, 33, and godmother of Ruiz, entered a guilty plea of numerous counts, including involuntary manslaughter, endangering children, tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse, and was sentenced to eight years in prison for her involvement in the death.
"This community has seen too many senseless homicides of innocent children," said Prosecutor O'Malley. "We hope that the victim's family can take some solace in today's sentence as justice for Eliazar has prevailed."
According to reports, the victim's mother dropped off the victim at Vega's house to care for him while she served a term of incarceration. Following her release from prison in 2016, she last saw her son at a Fourth of July party. Between then and June 2017, Vega and Tolbert reportedly denied the victim's mother and other family members' requests to see the child. The family reported the victim missing after multiple requests were denied.
On September 20, 2017, human remains in a plastic bag were recovered by the Cleveland Division of Police and Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office. An autopsy revealed that the remains belonged to a small child and ruled the cause of death as a homicide and noted the victim had suffered fractures in both arms. The Medical Examiner's Office was unable to identify the child due to severe decomposition and contacted a Kent State University anthropology professor to create a forensic sketch to help identify the body.
Two months later in December 2017, the sketch was released to media outlets leading the victim's mother to contact the Cleveland Division of Police stating the drawing looked like her missing son.
Following a DNA test, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office was able to successfully match the mother to the remains, confirming the identity of the victim as her four-year-old son.
The Cleveland Division of Police were able to connect Vega and Tolbert to the crime through phone records, email, social media accounts and other witness testimony. Both defendants fled the state after arrest warrants were issued. They were later captured by U.S. Marshals on March 29, 2019 in Adrian, Michigan and were extradited to Cuyahoga County for trial.