COLUMBUS, Ohio – A man arrested in Cleveland last August has been convicted of the murders of two family members in the Steubenville area almost 40 years ago.
A Jefferson County jury found Stanley Rusnak, now 65, guilty of two counts of murder on Wednesday in connection with the deaths of his uncle, James Kelsie Noble, 75; and Noble’s sister-in-law and caretaker, Sophie Groch Bell, 52, during a home invasion at Noble’s Piney Fork home on April 1, 1975, Ohio Attorney general Mike DeWine’s office announced.
Judge Joseph Bruzzese sentenced Rusnak to life in prison with parole eligibility after 30 years.
The jury acquitted Rusnak for the death of Robert Scott, 78, who was killed sometime between July 1 and July 19, 1977, DeWine’s office said. Scott’s body has never been found though authorities at the time found evidence of a home invasion and homicide at Scott’s home in Rayland, DeWin said.
The cases were investigated by authorities with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and the Bureau of Criminal Investigation as part of DeWine’s Ohio Unsolved Homicides Initiative and prosecuted by DeWine’s Special Prosecutions Section.