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WARREN -- A 25-year-old Bristolville man convicted in the 2017 murder of Brandon Sample and the armed robbery of Pizza Joe's in Cortland is the main suspect in the probable homicide of an inmate at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol said Austin T. Burke and the now-
deceased Ruben Melendez, 65, of Arizona were involved in a fight. After the two were broken up, Melendez had to be taken to a local hospital suffering from trauma to his head. He later was pronounced dead.
The patrol report states the injuries to Melendez might have played a role, but an autopsy will be conducted to determine the official cause of death. Once that report is completed the case will go before the Scioto County grand jury for possible charges against Burke.
Burke was sentenced to life in prison by Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Andrew D. Logan for the murder of Sample, whose body was found June 15, 2017, in a wooded area off Peck Leach Road in Bristol. He had been found shot once in the head.
Sample's mother had reported him missing three days earlier after he did not return home from swimming with a friend the previous day, according to a police report.
She told police Sample's father sent him a text about 4:30 a.m., and he responded he was on his way home, but he never arrived. His car was found abandoned in Niles.
Burke received an additional three years in prison for using a firearm in the commission of the crime. And Logan also sentenced him to 11 years for the June 20, 2017, aggravated robbery of the Cortland Pizza Joe's, with an additional three years for using a firearm in that crime.
He was to be eligible for parole March 15, 2075, according to Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction records.