CLEVELAND — The man charged in the fatal traffic incident that resulted in the death of the vice president of a local funeral home was found guilty of aggravated vehicular homicide on Thursday. According to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office, after being found guilty, Jason Beard was sentenced to three years of probation, six points on his license, a suspended license for five years and five years in prison suspended.
Beard's conviction stems from an incident that occurred on Sept. 24, 2020, when he was alleged to have been operating a dump truck with the bed of the truck raised on the I-480 West. After the bed of the truck hit an overhead highway sign, the sign fell directly onto the car of 62-year-old Daniel Ripepi, who was killed in the incident.
Ripepi, of Independence, was the Vice President of A. Ripepi & Sons Funeral Home.
In March 2021, Beard failed to show up for his first court appearance related to the incident. Shortly after, the mother of his 8-year-old son filed a missing person's report with the Warrensville Heights Police Department after she became concerned that Beard had not returned their son to her custody per their shared custody agreement.
The Warrensville Heights Police Department was able to ping Beard's phone and discovered that he was in Mexico. With the help of several law enforcement agencies, Beard was arrested near Brownville, Texas. He was extradited back to Cuyahoga County and charged with kidnapping. The child, who was unharmed, was returned to his mother.
Editor's note: the videos in this story are from previous stories.