Suspect in Ohio serial killings indicted with murders of 3 women

[News_Editor]

EAST CLEVELAND, OHIO (BNO NEWS) -- An Ohio man possibly influenced by a notorious serial killer was indicted Monday after the bodies of three women were found near Cleveland earlier this month, prosecutors said. He was also charged for breaching the terms of his requirements as a registered sex offender.

Michael Madison, 35, was indicted by a Cuyahoga County Grand Jury with two counts each of Aggravated Murder in the deaths of 28-year-old Shetisha Sheeley, 38-year-old Angela Deskins, and 18-year-old Shirellda Terry. The 14-count indictment also includes three counts of Kidnapping, three counts of Gross Abuse of a Corpse, one count of Rape and one count of Having Weapons Under Disability.

Police found the first of the victims on July 19 after answering a complaint about odors coming from a garage in East Cleveland, a city near Cleveland in Ohio. Madison, who is already a convicted sex offender after pleading guilty to attempted rape in 2002, was arrested hours later at his mother's home after a standoff with police.

Madison was also charged Monday with a single felony count of Failure to Provide Notice of Change of Address, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman Maria Russo said. She said Madison was required by law to tell the Cuyahoga County Sheriff where he was living and if he moved, but failed to notify authorities when he left his mother's house in Cleveland and moved to East Cleveland.

Last week, East Cleveland Municipal Judge William Dawson ordered Madison to be held on a $6 million bond, pending the Grand Jury's charging decision. Russo said the murder suspect, who remains in custody, is expected to be arraigned in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court later this week.

Investigators previously indicated that Madison may have been influenced by Cleveland serial killer Anthony Sowell, who was sentenced to death in August 2011 after being convicted of 11 counts of aggravated murder and more than 70 other charges which included rape and kidnapping.

Sowell, who pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and said he was "truly sorry" for the crimes he committed, was arrested in October 2009 as a suspect in the murders of eleven women whose bodies were discovered at his Cleveland house. The victims ranged in age from 25 to 52 and had been raped.

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