AKRON, Ohio — Elias Gudino, who was found guilty in connection with a Summit County triple murder where authorities say the bodies of three men were found bound and gagged, is set to receive his sentence this afternoon.
3News plans to stream the 2:30 p.m. sentencing hearing from Summit County Common Pleas Court. You can watch the proceedings in this story or on our YouTube channel.
The 59-year-old Gudino was found guilty on all charges on Oct. 11, less than 24 hours after the jury began its deliberations.
CASE DETAILS
The case dates back to early March 2023 when the Copley Police Department received a call that a body had been found adjacent to the roadway in the 2100 block of Wright Road.
That same morning, two more men were found dead in Akron a short distance away along Cordova Avenue.
Police say all three victims -- who were from Youngstown -- had been bound and gagged in a similar fashion. The victims were later identified as 25-year-old Inmer Reyes, 31-year-old Victor Varela-Rodriguez and 35-year-old Domingo Castillo-Reyes.
Gudino faced the following charges:
- Six counts of aggravated murder
- Two counts of attempted aggravated murder
- Three counts of murder
- One count of attempted murder
- Four counts of kidnapping
- Having weapons under disability
- Tampering with evidence
CRIME SCENE SURVIVOR
How did police find their suspect? Gudino was taken into custody after a series of events in which authorities say a fourth kidnapped man survived the incident by playing dead.
Here’s how that situation unfolded...
Before the bodies were discovered, Copley police responded to a call around 7:05 a.m. that a man was seen along Collier Road in the rain.
He was a Hispanic man who spoke very little English.
“Officers made an effort to communicate with the male with a translation phone app,” Copley police said in a previous press release last year. “The male indicated that he had been abandoned by his friends late the evening before or early this date. There was no indication that the male had broken any laws and he was transported to the Haven of Rest shelter.”
After the body was found on Wright Road, officers returned to the Haven of Rest and brought the man to the police station where a translator from a federal law enforcement agency conducted an interview.
“At this time, the male made statements connecting himself to the Wright Road scene,” Copley police said. “The male reported he had been kidnapped along with the deceased male, and two other males, from the Youngstown area and forcibly brought to the Copley / Akron area. He also reported that the kidnappers shot the male found on Wright Road and shot at him, however, he was not injured. The male played dead until the kidnappers left the area.”
Copley police said they found evidence near the body on Wright Road to support the man’s statement.
“It appears that this male then walked from the area in an effort to find his way back to Youngstown when the Copley police officers found him and provided him assistance,” Copley police continued.
SUSPECT SPOTTED
Later in the afternoon, Copley police drove that man throughout the area “in an effort to search for a home where the kidnapped males had been held.”
Then, around 5 p.m., they stumbled upon the suspect at a gas station on Copley Road.
“By chance, the Hispanic male with the detectives observed a male in the gas station that he identified as a suspect in his kidnapping.”
Police made contact with the suspect, who voluntarily accompanied detectives to the police station.
“Detectives also located additional evidence to connect the male with the crime,” according to Copley police.
That suspect, identified as Gudino, was arrested.
GUDINO'S CLAIMS
During the trial, Gudino took the stand in his own defense.
"Yeah, I was afraid for my life," Gudino said, claiming that somebody from the cartel he sold drugs with 15 years ago had arrived at his doorstep on March 9, 2023, and threatened his family.
3News' Matt Rascon reported that Gudino said the masked man named "Caso" pointed a gun at him as they drove to Youngstown and tied up four roommates. Gudino testified he didn't know the victims -- not even the man living with his wife, whom they lured to the house.
"What are the odds the man you're luring over is the same man sleeping with your wife?" Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Kevin Mayer asked.
"I never knew he was sleeping with my wife," Gudino answered. "Why you have to say that?"
Gudino said Caso and another masked man ordered him to drive the hostages back to his house in Copley, where he bound and gagged them with rope and duct tape he had bought at Home Depot earlier in the day. Gudino claimed, however, he bought them for his construction business.
Gudino asserted he was the driver as he and one of the masked men drove Mejia-Gomez and Castillo-Reyes to the side of a road in Copley. During testimony, he argued he remained in the vehicle while he heard gunshots.
Gudino's story contradicted his own version of events he told police during an interview the day after the murders. It also contradicted the surviving victim's testimony, with that witness saying Gudino had a gun throughout the kidnapping and that Gudino was calling the shots that night, rather than taking orders.
