A husband and wife who had been caring for a 4-year-old boy in Cleveland are now both charged with abusing and murdering him before burying his body on Longmead Ave. more than a year ago.
36-year-old Romaine Tolbert and 31-year-old Joanne Vega each face numerous charges in the death of Eliazar Ruiz, including:
- Murder
- Permitting child abuse
- Felonious assault
- Endangering children
- Involuntary manslaughter
- Offenses against human corpse
- Tampering with evidence
- Kidnapping
"Diligent police work by the Cleveland Police Department led to this indictment," Prosecutor Michael C. O’Malley said in a statement. "There is nothing worse than the murder of a child. We will seek justice for Eliazar."
The child's body was found buried on Longmead Ave. in September of 2017 after a contractor clearing out brush found a skeleton in a plastic bag beside a garage. The boy was subsequently identified as Eliazar four months later by his mother.
Ashley Makuhan had been preparing to serve an 18-month prison sentence for drug charges when she left her son Eliazar in the care of his godmother Vega in March of 2017. She told WKYC back in February she hadn't had contact with Vega since before she was sentenced.
"I trusted her," Makuhan told Andrew Horansky while she was incarcerated. "She’s always been a good mother, I would’ve never picked her for my son if I would’ve ever thought that something like this would happen."
Both Tolbert and Vega are due in court Jan. 29 at 8:30 a.m., according to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office.