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Convicted murderer Mitchell Ruble dies in prison

File Photo Mitchell Ruble

MARIETTA — Washington County resident Mitchell Ruble — who was convicted in 2016 of murder in the death of a Washington County Sheriff’s Deputy over three decades ago — has died.

Washington County Sheriff Larry Mincks said he received notification Saturday that Ruble had died in his sleep of natural causes while serving a life sentence at the Idaho Correctional Institute in Boise, Idaho.

Following his conviction last March on a charge of unscheduled felony murder in Washington County Common Pleas Court, Ruble, 66, received a mandatory life sentence on April 28, 2016. He was convicted in the 1981 death of Ray “Joe” Clark, a member of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

Mincks said Ruble was serving his sentence at an out-of-state correctional facility due to his many years working as a correctional officer in the state of Ohio. After failing to report for a morning meal call, he was found by officials in his bunk, Mincks said.

“He died of natural causes, in his sleep,” Mincks said.

The case goes back more than 35 years to Feb. 7, 1981, when Clark was shot and killed through the window of his home on Dodd’s Run Road in Warren Township.

At the time of his September 2014 arrest, a search warrant was executed at Ruble’s home and investigators found a number of weapons, leading to him being charged with seven different felony counts involving possession of dangerous ordnances and processing of explosives.

In a plea agreement, Ruble pleaded guilty to a single fifth-degree felony count of unlawful possession of a dangerous ordnance at the time of his sentencing last April. He received 11 months, which was to be served concurrently with his life sentence.

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