Man imprisoned in 2008 assault now charged with murder
ELYRIA, Ohio (WJW) — The man who brutally assaulted and shot Lorain County mother Shawn Stevens in 2008, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down, is now facing a murder charge for her death in 2019.
Lorain County Prosecutor J.D. Tomlinson announced the charge in a Friday news briefing. Matthew Plas, who’s been serving a 33-year prison sentence in the attack, was arraigned Thursday on the new charge, he said.
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The attack happened in May 2008 near the duck pond in Lorain County Metro Parks Carlisle Reservation in LaGrange. Stevens was 43.
“While walking, Stevens was shot in the back, beaten, sexually assaulted, stuffed in the trunk of a car and left for dead behind an abandoned building,” Tomlinson said Friday, later adding, “It’s just haunted me. … Every time I drive by the duck pond I think about the matter.”
The attack appeared to be random, he said.
“He walked past her and said, ‘Isn’t it a beautiful day?’ And she went to turn around and that’s when he shot her,” said Stevens’ daughter Carol.
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Plas pleaded guilty to all charges in November 2009 and was sentenced to 33 years in prison, Tomlinson said.
Stevens survived and lived another 12 years, though was mostly in a bed or a wheelchair, and in constant pain, loved ones said.
“He put her on death row. That’s how I see it. She had to suffer for 12 years in pain,” Carol said.
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Shawn died in December 2019 at the age of 55. The Lorain County coroner in January 2020 ruled her death was caused by complications from the gunshot injury to her spine, Tomlinson said.
Murder charges were then sent to Lorain County prosecutors for review, but never presented to a grand jury, he said. Tomlinson, who took office in January 2020, said he wasn’t made aware of the status of the case until Stevens’ family reached out to him in late 2023 to ask for an update on the case.
An indictment handed up Feb. 21 charges Plas, now 41, with four counts of murder, all with firearm specifications, court records show. He was due back in court on Friday morning. He’s currently incarcerated at Mansfield Correctional Institution.
“This is an important day for Shawn and for the county,” Tomlinson said. “Though justice has been delayed in this case, it will not be denied. We are going forward.”
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