TOLEDO, Ohio — One of several people convicted for his involvement in the kidnapping and murder of two Toledo teens will spend at least two decades in prison.
Cruz Garcia, 25, of Toledo, was sentenced Thursday to a total of 20-25 years in prison on two counts of kidnapping and two counts of involuntary manslaughter, both first-degree felonies.
Garcia pleaded guilty in January 2024 to the reduced charges after originally being charged with the murder and kidnapping of 16-year-old Ke'Marion Wilder and 15-year-old Kyshawn Pittman.
The bodies of both teens were found on Dec. 15, 2022, in the remnants of a home on Chase Street in north Toledo that had burned down on Dec. 5, 2022.
According to court documents, Garcia assaulted and kidnapped both teens from a home on Maumee Avenue in south Toledo and then took them to an abandoned home on Chase Street on Dec. 3 of that month.
Garcia then returned to the home on Chase Street multiple times before it was burned down two days later.
The Lucas County Coroner's Office ruled both teens' deaths homicides.
Nearly a dozen others have been found guilty of charges in the case and received sentences. Most recently, Corbin Gingrich and Carrissa Eames were sentenced on July 2.
After pleading guilty in May to two counts of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of kidnapping, Gingrich was sentenced to 20-25 years in prison.
Carrissa Eames was also sentenced to a minimum of 12 years in prison after she pleaded guilty in June to two counts of complicity in the commission of felonious assault and two counts of complicity in the commission of kidnapping.
Brent Kohlhoffer and Charles Walker were sentenced in June to life in prison without possibility of parole on aggravated murder, murder and kidnapping charges in the case.