CLEVELAND, Ohio — Prosecutors say a Cleveland man gave a 14-year-old girl a lethal dose of fentanyl and then recorded himself raping her as she overdosed.
Ronnell Lillard-Giles, 31, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of murder, involuntary manslaughter, rape, unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, corrupting another with drugs and child pornography charges involving the girl’s death on Feb. 13.
He is being held in the Cuyahoga County Jail on a $500,000 bond after his arraignment in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.
cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer is not naming the girl because of the sensitive nature of the case.
Lillard-Giles and the girl met through Instagram, prosecutors said. He paid for a room at a downtown Cleveland hotel and took her there on Feb. 11 and sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said. Lillard-Giles took the girl to his home on East 112th Street the next night and gave her synthetic marijuana and tequila, and the two drank and smoked together, prosecutors said.
He then gave the girl fentanyl, the highly potent and deadly opioid, prosecutors said.
Lillard-Giles took the girl’s cellphone and recorded himself performing sex acts on her as she lost consciousness, prosecutors said. The video shows the girl foaming at the mouth during the assault, prosecutors said.
He called 911 several hours later, prosecutors said. The girl was rushed to the Cleveland Clinic and pronounced dead later that night.
The Cuyahoga County medical examiner’s office later determined that the girl died from a lethal combination of fentanyl, a synthetic fentanyl and alcohol.
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