James Kip Ramsdell, 60, pleaded guilty to one second-degree felony count of manslaughter Friday.
According to Ramsdell’s defense attorney Cliff Venable, the manslaughter charge was part of a negotiated plea deal. Venable declined to comment further until after sentencing.
Ramsdell has been held without bail in the Summit County Jail since being arrested for the 2021 shooting of one of his tenants, 50-year-old John Krieg.
According to court documents, Summit County sheriff’s deputies found Krieg dead from a single gunshot wound to the chest in the front yard of a home on Countryside Circle in Highland Estates in October 2021.
Deputies then found Ramsdell in the home; he’d been shot in the hand and was heavily intoxicated. Ramsdell went to the hospital, and once he was sober and read his Miranda rights, he said he “could have shot Krieg.”
Another tenant told authorities Ramsdell had said he would kill Krieg earlier in the evening, and wounds on both men indicated they may have gotten in a fight prior to the shooting.
Deputies found Ramsdell’s .22-caliber revolver while searching his home, and it had two spent casings.
The Summit County Attorney’s Office originally filed murder charges. County Attorney Margaret Olson said her office still has no doubt Ramsdell caused Krieg’s death.
However, she foresaw an issue proving Ramsdell’s mental state at the time of the alleged shooting.
“The forensic evidence could only tell us so much, and Ramsdell was highly intoxicated when sheriff's deputies made contact with him,” Olson said. “Considering the strength of the evidence available, our office believes that manslaughter was the appropriate outcome.”
A second-degree felony, manslaughter is punishable by 1 to 15 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine. The county attorney is recommending the maximum prison sentence and that Ramsdell serve all 15 years.
Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 20 at 1:30 p.m. in Third District Court Judge Richard Mrazik’s courtroom.
