YOUNGSTOWN — The final defendant in the $1 million, seven-person, three-county burglary and arson case handled in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office was sentenced last week to a suspended jail sentence.

Ted E. Dozier Wynn, 32, of Bassett Lane, pleaded guilty to petty theft, a first-degree misdemeanor, Nov. 1, 2022, and cooperated with Dan Kasaris, assistant Ohio attorney general, in the prosecution of the others in the case, Kasaris said at Wynn’s hearing Thursday.

Wynn was “the first person to come forward and tell us what was going on with (co-defendant) Patricia Floyd,” Kasaris told Judge John Durkin of Floyd, the now-71-year-old Youngstown ringleader of the enterprise.

Kasaris said Wynn “fully cooperated,” adding that it was Wynn’s cooperation “that led to what we ended up doing with the rest of the defendants.”

Kasaris said Wynn “never pocketed any money. He drove a tractor from Ashtabula County in mid-February (2015) to Youngstown on the back roads. That tractor was then reported stolen by Jim Kellar. The tractor was stored at Patricia Floyd’s house. That’s (Wynn’s) role. He also overheard conversations Floyd had with others.”

Kasaris said Wynn was initially “shy about coming forward and being truthful” but he later was truthful. Kasaris asked the judge to give Wynn a suspended jail sentence.

Wynn told the judge what he did was wrong. The judge noted that Wynn successfully remained free on bond since his plea, so the judge said he considered that evidence that there was no further need of Wynn being placed on probationary supervision. The judge sentenced Wynn to six months in the county jail, suspended the sentence, adding, “I consider this case closed.”

Floyd was placed on probation with no jail or prison time in March after pleading guilty to theft for filing a fraudulent insurance claim involving her home on Atkinson Road on the East Side. The so-called “Floyd Gang” set the house on fire in February 2016. Then Floyd filed a fraudulent claim with Allstate Insurance “as to who the arsonist was,” according to her indictment. Allstate paid $260,236 on the claim.

Floyd also pleaded guilty to insurance fraud for that claim. She also pleaded guilty to complicity to insurance fraud for convincing Nationwide Insurance that a legitimate burglary occurred at a property in Ashtabula County owned by Floyd when in fact others in the group set it up to look like a burglary when none existed, according to court documents. That also happened in February 2016.

Wynn drove a New Holland tractor from Ashtabula to Floyd’s home in Youngstown in February 2015 so that its owner, Kellar, 48, of Niles, could report it stolen and collect $30,000 worth of insurance proceeds, according to court documents.

Investigators with the Youngstown police and fire departments and Ohio State Fire Marshal’s Office found the tractor at Floyd’s home while investigating the arson, Floyd’s indictment states. Another of Floyd’s convictions was complicity to insurance fraud for a fraud at 2328 Carson Salt Springs Road in Lordstown around 2012.

Judge Durkin said at Floyd’s sentencing hearing that Floyd could neither be imprisoned nor forced to pay restitution for the thefts because of her severe health problems and because she is “indigent,” meaning unable to pay for her own lawyer.

The other defendants are Kyrene Rodriguez, 38, of Lois Court in Youngstown, Floyd’s daughter; Juan Rodriguez, also known as Johnny Rodriguez, 32, of Youngstown; Christopher J. Gibboney, 29, of Girard; and Jessica Gonzalez, 51, of Youngstown.

Have an interesting story? Email Ed Runyan at erunyan@vindy.com.