A Streetsboro man will spend at least the next 13 years in prison after admitting he tried to kill a family member in her 70s during an Easter Sunday attack last year, then called 911 to claim she had simply fallen down the stairs. Richard McNeal was sentenced Monday to 13 to 18 years behind bars after pleading guilty in June to attempted murder and having weapons while under disability.
The attack happened on April 20, 2025, inside a home on the 1600 block of Leslie Drive, according to Cleveland 19 News. McNeal called 911 and reported that a woman had fallen down the stairs and needed medical attention, but responding medics reported that her condition was not consistent with just a fall. Officers who arrived at the scene determined the woman had been violently assaulted, and she was able to tell them some of what happened.
Police determined McNeal had pushed the woman down the stairs as she tried to run away from him, and that he struck her several times, including hitting the back of her head with a heavy hand tool similar to a mallet or meat tenderizer. The assault left her with critical injuries and defensive wounds. According to WKYC, the victim was first taken to University Hospitals Portage Campus in Ravenna before being transferred to another hospital due to the severity of her head injuries.
State Investigators Called In For Crime Scene
The severity of the attack prompted Streetsboro Police Chief Patricia Wain to request help from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation to process the Leslie Drive crime scene, the outlet's report notes. Wain, who has led the department since being appointed chief in September 2020 after 25 years with the agency, oversaw the local investigation into the case. The victim's specific relationship to McNeal has not been disclosed in public court records beyond her being a family member.
A Portage County grand jury initially indicted McNeal on a wider set of felony charges, including kidnapping, two counts of felonious assault, and a repeat violent offender specification, in addition to attempted murder and the weapons charge, per the same account. He ultimately pleaded guilty in June only to attempted murder and having weapons while under disability, resolving the case without trial.
How Ohio's Sentencing Law Shaped the Term
McNeal's 13-to-18-year sentence stems from Ohio's Reagan Tokes Law, enacted through Senate Bill 201 in 2019. Under the statute, qualifying first-degree and second-degree felony convictions like attempted murder carry indefinite sentences, with the maximum term calculated as the minimum sentence plus 50 percent, according to the Supreme Court of Ohio. The law means the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction can hold McNeal for the full 18 years depending on his conduct behind bars.
Separately, his weapons-while-under-disability conviction falls under Ohio Revised Code § 2923.13, a third-degree felony that on its own carries a potential 9 to 36 months in prison and fines up to $10,000, according to the Botnick Law Firm. That statute bars people with prior violent felony convictions or indictments from possessing weapons. As of last year, nearly 15,000 people incarcerated in Ohio were serving indefinite sentences under the Reagan Tokes framework, representing close to a third of the state's entire prison population, per data cited by Court News Ohio.
A Broader Pattern of Local Violent Crime Cases
McNeal's case adds to a steady caseload of violent crime prosecutions in Portage County. The county prosecutor's office handled 1,563 felony reports across 16 local law enforcement agencies in 2024 alone, including nine homicide or attempted homicide cases, 73 felonious assault cases, and 78 felony domestic violence cases, according to the Portage County Prosecutor's Office. That same year, grand juries in the county returned 1,092 new felony indictments in Portage County Common Pleas Court.
Domestic-related calls also make up a significant share of Streetsboro police work. Data compiled by the Ohio Attorney General's Office shows the Streetsboro Police Department recorded 36 domestic violence charges, eight other related charges, and 106 non-charge domestic incidents in 2025. The case against McNeal now stands closed with his sentencing, though the exact nature of his relationship to the victim remains unreported.
