The Dayton teenager accused of fatally shooting Take Gangloff at an RTA bus stop in September 2013 has been found guilty of aggravated murder.
Robert Jones Jr., 17, also was convicted of aggravated robbery, intimidation of a crime victim and attempted breaking and entering.
Sentencing is set for July 15.
In October, the Montgomery County Prosecutor's Office announced that Jones, aka Da'Ron, would be tried as an adult for the Sept. 13 homicide.
In December, Jones was indicted in Gangloff's death, according to county court records.
Gangloff, 75, was a native of Okinawa, Japan, who had come to the United States after marrying a Marine. Her story resonated with strangers. Members of the Okinawa Tomonokai of Ohio stepped in to make funeral arrangements when Montgomery County authorities could not locate any family in the United States. Her extended family, with whom she had lost contact, learned of her death weeks after she had been slain.
Tuesday afternoon, the courts found Jones guilty of aggravated murder, along with several unrelated crimes, according to Greg Flannagan, prosecutor's office spokesman. The courts established that Jones shot Gangloff in the head shortly before 6 a.m. at a bus stop on Norwood Avenue while attempting to commit an armed robbery, according to Flannagan.
An RTA driver discovered Gangloff's body and contacted Dayton police.
Ernest Ridgel, of Dayton, said in September after learning of Gangloff's death, described the woman he called a friend as a good cook and an athletic person who didn't bother anyone. Ridgel said of what he knew of Gangloff, she liked to walk and she liked to go grocery shopping in the early hours. He was puzzled as to why she was on Norwood Avenue because there was a bus stop in front of her apartment building, a couple of blocks from where her body was discovered.
"I guess she had to walk around the corner to catch the bus. I guess she got tired of waiting for the bus, probably," Ridgel said.
Those other crimes for which Jones was also indicted occurred before Gangloff's slaying. He tried to break into the Ohio Loan Company, on West Third Street, the day of the killing and on Sept. 28 used a gun to rob a Shell gas station on West Third Street. He was indicted on the intimidation charge Jan. 17.
"This defendant is clearly violent, dangerous and has no regard for lives or property of others," Prosecutor Mathias Heck Jr. said in a prepared statement Tuesday afternoon. "We will be asking the court to sentence him to the maximum possible term of incarceration."
