Prosecutor Kevin Flanagan announced today the sentencing of Dalton Ray for his conviction of Obstructing Justice after a jury trial on June 3, 2025.
Ray, a 33-year-old native of Broken Bow, Oklahoma, received 30 months in prison for lying to detectives from the Belmont County Sheriff’s Office when they were investigating the double homicide case involving Angela and Thomas Strussion.
At trial, detectives explained how they traveled from Ohio to Oklahoma to interview Ray in July 2024 regarding any information that he may have involving the deaths of the Strussions. After the first interview, detectives from Belmont County were able to determine that untruthful information was given to them by Ray. Detectives again traveled to Oklahoma to interview Ray for a second time.
The testimony at trial showed that Ray again provided false statements to the detectives during the second interview but this time detectives confronted Ray with evidence contradicting his statements.
Detectives, knowing Ray was not being truthful, secured an arrest warrant to bring Ray back to Ohio to stand trial. Ray was on probation at the time that he lied so his probation was revoked in Texas. Belmont County waited for him to finish his sentence in Texas and then extradited him back to Ohio.
In rendering the sentence, the Court found that Ray had a serious criminal history, the seriousness of lying to investigators during a homicide investigation and the fact that he was on probation at the time of his deception were all factors that warranted a prison sentence.
Flanagan said that Joe Vavra tried the case in conjunction with the detectives from the Belmont County Sheriff’s Office.
“The detectives were relentless in their pursuit of the truth as it relates to this homicide investigation. That is why they focused on bringing Ray back to Ohio. And once again, Joe did a masterful job for our office, as he always does, presenting the case to the jury,” said Flanagan.
