Deon’te Ravon Taylor, a 30-year-old Black man, was killed on May 5, 2023. His death occurred in the apartment he shared with his girlfriend in Willoughby, Ohio, a suburb east of Cleveland.
In the early morning hours, around 2 a.m., Willoughby police officers responded to a disturbance call at the Oakhill Apartments on Oakhill Lane. At the apartment, they spoke with Deon’te and his girlfriend, 32-year-old Ashley Deziree Doss.
According to police, the couple reported they had been arguing but both wished to remain together in the apartment, so the officers left.
Just over an hour later, at 3:20 a.m., Doss called 911. She told the Lake County Central Dispatch operator that her boyfriend had been shot and needed an ambulance. When the call was transferred to the Willoughby Police dispatch, Doss admitted that she had shot him.
Officers returned to the apartment and found Deon’te unresponsive in the bedroom with a gunshot wound. Willoughby Fire and Rescue personnel transported him to University Hospitals Lake West Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Detectives took Doss to the police department for an interview.
Following the interview, Ashley Doss was arrested and initially charged with murder, felonious assault, and domestic violence. She was arraigned in Willoughby Municipal Court on May 8, 2023, and was ordered to be held without bond at the Lake County Jail. Later, in August 2023, a Lake County grand jury indicted Doss on charges of aggravated murder, murder, and felonious assault.
On August 31, 2023, Doss appeared in the Lake County Court of Common Pleas and pleaded not guilty to all charges. As of that month, she remained in custody while her case proceeded through the court system, with a pre-trial hearing scheduled for October.
