MESSAGE FROM PROSECUTOR SHERRI BEVAN WALSH
Contact:
April Wiesner
(330) 643-8386
Benitez-Maranon Pleads to Shooting and Killing
Cab Driver
(November 14, 2011… Akron)
… Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh
announced today that
Raul Benitez-Maranon pleaded guilty this morning to Aggravated Murder with a gun
specification.
On the evening of
August 14, Benitez-Maranon took a cab from a bar in North
Canton
to his home in New Franklin. When he arrived home, Benitez-Maranon informed his
girlfriend that the cab driver had angered him and walked back out of the
apartment to where the cab was still sitting in the parking lot. After years of
kidney problems, the cab driver had finally received a transplant and was
semi-retired after driving taxis and semis for three decades. Benitez-Maranon
returned to the cab and shot the driver numerous times, killing him. When he was
arrested just moments later, Benitez-Maranon told officers the cab driver had
disrespected him and his family and had gotten what he deserved.
Judge Elinore
Stormer will sentence Benitez-Maranon on November 30 at 8:45 a.m.
Benitez-Maranon faces life in prison.
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