- The prosecutor said Ray, as a result of the custody battle, set the front porch of the victims' house on fire around 2:29 a.m. on March 30.
- A jury convicted Ray on Wednesday after about four hours of deliberations over two days.
- The 31-year-old Nimishillen Township man must spend 28 to 31 1/2 years after his conviction on five felony aggravated arson counts
CANTON − A 31-year-old Nimishillen Township man must spend 28 to 31 1/2 years after his conviction on five felony aggravated arson counts against a Canton couple and their two sons.
Stark County Common Pleas Judge Taryn Heath sentenced Ivan L. Ray IV on Thursday to four consecutive terms of at least seven years for each charge of first-degree aggravated arson against each of the four victims, according to Assistant Stark County Prosecutor Chelsea Small.
For his sentence for committing second-degree aggravated arson against the couple's home, Heath ruled that Ray would serve that concurrently with the other sentences.
Small said the maximum sentence Ray faced was 52 years, 11 years for each of the four first-degree aggravated arson convictions and eight years for the second-degree aggravated arson.
Ivan Ray convicted on Canton arson after jury trial
A jury convicted Ray on Wednesday after about four hours of deliberations over two days, Small said. His trial began June 21 after Ray rejected her offer of a recommended sentence of 22 years if he pleaded guilty, she said.
A message seeking comment was left Thursday with Ray's attorney, Anthony Wise of the Stark County Public Defender's office
Small said that Ray earlier this year was the boyfriend of a woman who is Ray's ex-wife. That woman also shared custody of a child with the man who later was one of the arson victims, who lived on Hoover Place NW. Ray's girlfriend and that man had been undergoing a contentious legal battle in Stark County Family Court on custody and visitation issues with the child.
The prosecutor said Ray, as a result of the custody battle, set the front porch of the victims' house on fire around 2:29 a.m. on March 30. It was a night when his ex-wife's child was not scheduled to be at the home under the visitation schedule.
Luckily at that time, one of the two sons had been crying and keeping the couple awake. They smelled smoke, and the husband and wife fled out the back of their house with their two sons without injury. The fire caused extensive damage to their home.
Evidence
Small said video of the arsonist wearing a backpack and wearing camouflage clothing, gloves and a hat was captured on the couple's surveillance camera, which was not destroyed by the fire. There was more video from the surveillance camera of a relative of the husband who lived nearby and video from city cameras. The footage led investigators to identify Ray as a suspect.
Fire investigators testified in the trial that the arsonist set fire to the victims' house with a torch and ignitable fluid. A lab technician at the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation testified that DNA evidence on the torch, found a distance from the home, was from Ray. And the video from the cameras showed Ray in the area before the fire and then fleeing after the fire was ignited.
Small said investigators found no evidence Ray's girlfriend and ex-wife or anyone else was involved.
Police arrested Ray on April 2. He was held since then at the Stark County Jail on $3 million bond.
Ray did not testify at his trial.
The couple and their teen son who managed to escape their burning home told Heath Thursday during Ray's sentencing about how Ray's crime had affected them, Small said.
“We do truly believe that he was trying to kill that family. It was 2:30 in the morning while they were supposed to be asleep. He picked a night that (his girlfriend's child) wasn’t there," said Small. "Luckily, they are still here today and can move past this.”
Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com. X formerly Twitter: @rwangREP.
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