ELYRIA — Murder suspect Ruben Rivera told the brother-in-law of the judge set to hear his case that he was planning to have a key witness eliminated, according to court documents filed by prosecutors on Friday.

Assistant Lorain County Prosecutor Tony Cillo wrote that Rivera told a corrections officer in the Lorain County Jail that people would be surprised when he got off on the aggravated murder charge for the August 2004 shooting death of Manuel Garcia.

The only corrections officer listed as a witness in the case is Robert Cruzado, the brother-in-law of county Common Pleas Judge James Burge.

Rivera allegedly told Cruzado that “there was only one person who could hem him up and that all he had to do was eliminate that one person,” Cillo wrote.

Rivera also allegedly told Cruzado that he had a friend at Trumbull Correctional Institution who was set to be released soon and would “do it for him,” Cillo wrote.

Angel David, who is charged along with Rivera with conspiracy to commit murder, was never released from the prison after police began looking into the plot and discovered 42 letters exchanged by the two men, who are allegedly part of the same gang.

The letters, which were riddled with spelling and grammar errors and gang slang, are being translated from Spanish to English by the FBI, Lorain police Sgt. Mark Carpentiere has said.

Shareaka Bason, the alleged assassination target, was Garcia’s girlfriend and has already testified at the trials of two other men now serving life sentences for their roles in Garcia’s death.

Cillo has asked Burge to remove himself from Rivera’s cases because of a possible conflict because his brother-in-law is a witness.

Earlier this year, Burge ruled that the state could only use a sedative to execute Rivera and Ronald McCloud — another accused killer who could potentially face the death penalty — if they are convicted and sentenced to death.

Prosecutors and the state vigorously opposed Burge’s efforts to hold the hearings to review the state’s current execution protocols, which uses three drugs to kill condemned inmates. Burge found that the three-drug cocktail violates an Ohio law that requires executions to be quick and painless.

Kreig Brusnahan, one of Rivera’s attorneys, said he hasn’t seen the specifics of exactly what Rivera reportedly told Cruzado.

“It would be difficult for me to comprehend why Ruben Rivera would make a statement of that sort to a member of law enforcement,” he said.

Brusnahan also said he finds it odd that the correctional officer who Rivera allegedly explained his plan to is related to the judge on the case.

“It’s a remarkable coincidence that of all the corrections officers at the Lorain County Jail, the one corrections officer that he gives the statement to is the brother-in-law of the judge that the state of Ohio has been seeking to disqualify for the last year,” he said.

Kenneth Lieux, another of Rivera’s attorneys, said Rivera has denied the murder plot to him and prosecutors haven’t produced much in the way of proof, or even copies of the letters, that would justify the conspiracy charges.

“The letters are not a plan to kill anybody,” Lieux said. “It’s absurd.”

Cillo, who could not be reached for comment Friday, has previously asked Burge to remove himself from the case, suggesting that Burge may be pushing an anti-death penalty agenda from the bench. Burge has refused to remove himself from the case and said he wanted to give the defendants a fair trial.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

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