A grand jury indicts a man in a triple murder in Summit County

On October 12, 2024By Yukito

SUMMIT COUNTY, Ohio (WOIO) – A jury returned a verdict Friday in the trial of a man accused of kidnapping four victims and fatally shooting three of them in Summit County.

As Judge Mary Margaret Rowlands announced, Elias Gudino was found guilty of all charges.

Gudino will be sentenced on December 18.

The trial began on September 30 in Summit County Common Pleas Court.

Elias Gudino was charged with the following charges:

Six counts of aggravated murder
Two counts of attempted murder with particular cruelty
Three counts of murder
One count of attempted murder
Four counts of kidnapping
One count of tampering with evidence
One count of possession of a weapon by a disabled person

According to police, all four victims were kidnapped from another county and then taken to Summit County, where they were bound, gagged and shot in the head.

The bodies of the three victims were discovered on March 10, 2023.

Inmer Reyes, 25, of Youngstown, and Victor Varela-Rodriguez, 31, of Youngstown, were found in Akron in the area of Cordova Avenue near Redbush Road, the Summit County Medical Examiner said.

The body of Domingo Castillo-Reyes, 35, of Youngstown, was found in Copley on the 2100 Block of Wright Road, according to the Summit County Medical Examiner.

A fourth victim was shot on Wright Road but was uninjured and survived by playing dead, Copley police said.

He was found by officers walking along Collier Road before the victims were discovered.

According to Copley police, the man spoke very little English and told officers he had been abandoned by friends and was trying to return to Youngstown.

The officers took him to the Przystań Wypoczynku shelter in Akron.

After the bodies were found, police returned to the shelter and the man was brought to the police station accompanied by a translator from a federal law enforcement agency.

The man, with the help of a translator, was able to provide police with detailed information about what happened.

Copley police detectives said they then drove the surviving victim around Copley and Akron, trying to find the house where the kidnapped men were being held.

Police said while driving with the victim, detectives stopped at a gas station on Copley Road in Copley and the victim recognized the kidnapping suspect.

Police say Gudino voluntarily went with detectives to the police station.

Gudino is being held without bond in the Summit County Jail.