Chad Webb and Daniel Mobley were unaware Chris Vo had a camera inside his garage, and that camera captured the brutal murder and the chilling moment when the two men hugged as blood spilled out from the victim's body, said the prosecutor.
A judge in Ohio sentenced a gay couple to life in prison for the murder of a hairdresser and Vietnamese refuge, who died after being shot in the chest, strangled, and having his throat slit on Christmas Day, according to prosecutors.
Daniel Mobley and Chad Webb, both 29, learned their fate after entering a guilty plea last month to eight charges including aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, and aggravated burglary as part of a deal with prosecutors that spared them from being sentenced to death.
The two men "brutally beat, stabbed, strangled, and shot" 57-year-old hairdresser Chris Vo at his Cleveland home on Christmas Day in 2021 before fleeing the scene with his bank card and other property, prosecutor Kevin Filiatraut said at the sentencing hearing on Monday.
Officers discovered Vo's body the following day when a client arrived at his home for a hair appointment and requested a welfare check after seeing what appeared to be a dried pool of blood outside the garage door, according to the Cleveland Division of Police.
On Dec. 27, police arrested Mobley and Webb at a motel after tracking the license plate of the 2019 Dodge Ram the two men were driving, said Filiatraut.
Multiple bank cards were found on the men at the time of their arrest, and they were charged with theft for being in possession of a PNC Bank Visa debit card belonging to Vo, and two counts of receiving stolen property, according to a grand jury indictment obtained by Inside Edition Digital. That property is identified in the indictment as the Dodge Ram and a US Bank Visa card, CITI Bank card, Old Navy Visa card, and American Express card belonging to a female.
The indictment also charges Mobley with identity fraud for obtaining a man's personal identifying information with the "intent to represent [that man's] personal identifying information as his own personal identifying information."
Prosecutors filed that indictment on Feb. 25, 2022, and waited to present the case until the medical examiner determined the cause and manner of Vo's death.
The decision to wait only strengthened the prosecution's case when the office of the Cuyahoga Medical Examiner released its findings and concluded Vo's manner of death to be homicide caused by "strangulation asphyxia with gunshot wound of chest and blunt and sharp force injuries."
Filiatraut detailed the events that happened on the night of Dec. 25, 2021 in court on Monday, saying that Vo agreed to go on a date with Webb.
Webb arrived at the home with Mobley, who got to work turning off exterior lights and shifting the security cameras outside the home so that they were all pointing skyward, said Filatraut
Mobley failed to realize that Vo had a camera inside his garage, and that camera captured the brutal murder, said Filiatraut. He noted that it also captured the chilling moment that the two men hugged as blood spilled out from Vo's body.
Filiatraut then played that video in court on Monday before Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge John Sutula handed down his sentence.
Filiatraut also revealed that Vo appeared at a sentencing hearing in another case two months before his death to speak on Mobley's behalf, the man now convicted of his murder. In the wake of Vo's appearance, the court sentenced Mobley to probation and court-ordered drug treatment rather than serving prison time, reports Cleveland.com.
On Monday, Judge Sutula did send Mobley to prison, sentencing him to life with no possibility of parole for 36 years and an additional three years for a probation violation, according to a spokesperson for the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office (CCPO).
Webb also received a life sentence, but with the possibility of parole in 28 years, according to the CCPO spokesperson.
Lawyers for Mobley and Webb did not respond to requests for comment.
