Man Sentenced for Murdering Toddler

Joanna Pizzi brought a plastic bag of keepsakes – toys, clothes and a blanket – today to Lake County Court of Common Pleas.

It is what she has left of her son, Jordan Pizzi.

She pulled each item from her bag and showed it to Joshua Ricket, the Mentor-on-the-Lake man convicted of killing 19-month-old Jordan.

"These are his sunglasses, Josh. You remember him wearing them in the car?" Pizzi asked. "This is his shirt. He wore this the day you murdered him."

Ricket did not look up – not at Jordan's shirt, his sippy cup or his first toy.

"That's all you can do?" Pizzi asked. "Sit there with your head down?"

Before Pizzi finished, she asked two more questions.

"What happened to my son that day? What did you do to him?"

Ricket did not answer or lift his head.

Ricket, 25, did not say what caused him to choke Jordan or fracture his skull while babysitting him Aug. 27 in Concord Township. When given the chance to speak during his sentencing Thursday, he quietly apologized for his actions.

Ricket and endangering children Jan. 18.

His attorney, Chief Assistant Public Defender Charles Grieshammer, said Ricket lost his temper with the crying child and unintentionally killed him in a fit of anger.

Dan Pizzi, Jordan's father, disagreed with Grieshammer's explanation.

"Mr. Grieshammer, you said he's a nice guy – went overboard," Dan Pizzi said. "With all due respect, if he killed your son you wouldn't say he's a nice guy."

Jordan's grandmother, Diane Faehnrich, brought photos of Jordan's funeral to the sentencing. She slammed the photos on the table in front of Ricket.

"I just want you to see what we all had to look at," she said.

Judge Eugene Lucci sentenced Ricket to 30 years to life in prison, the maximum possible punishment. He said if he could have, he would have given him more.

"Mister Ricket, ever since your guilty plea, I have asked myself every day what kind of man would break a kid's skull or what kind of man strangles a kid for crying," Lucci said. "This sentencing hearing hasn't answered that question for me. Did some evil get into you that day? Are you a vicious, violent person?"

The hearing did have one moment of forgiveness.

Bill Faehnrich, Jordan's great-uncle, said he would pray for Ricket.

"What good will come out of your life?" Bill Faehnrich asked. "Only you can decide that. I'll pray for you that some good will come out of it."