“You’ll go to prison as long as I can send you”

CLEVELAND – Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge David T. Matia sentenced to life in prison during a sentencing hearing Thursday a Cleveland man accused of killing his estranged wife in front of their 7-year-old daughter.

36-year-old Joshua Lynch will not be eligible for parole until he has served 28.5 years behind bars.

“If ever there was a human being who did not deserve to move freely in organized society, it is you,” said Judge Matia.

The judge noticed that Lynch grinned when he learned his fate.

“Are you enjoying this?” he asked. “I don't understand why you're smiling.”

In a trial before a single judge last week, Matia found Lynch guilty of two counts of murder, two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of possession of a weapon while unrecognizable, one count of endangering children and one count of gross desecration of a corpse.

Lynch shot and killed his estranged wife, Jovon Ferguson-Lynch, in their Huntmere Avenue home in Cleveland in February 2023 while their then-seven-year-old daughter was present.

After shooting her twice, Lynch dragged her body away, left it in a car, and then fled with her daughter in another car.

Days later, Lynch turned himself in.

News 5 first reported to you about Lynch's case last year.

Our investigation revealed that Lynch was out in the open and able to kill Jovon, despite having a dozen criminal convictions in Cuyahoga County, one of which involved him being accused of threatening her with a gun.

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Jovon's three sisters and her mother, Annetta Ferguson, gave victim impact statements during the hearing.

“He took my little sister away from us,” said Terrasita Ferguson. “My niece has no mother or damn father.”

Ferguson is raising Jovon's daughter.

“My (grand)daughter will never see her mother again,” she said. “I have custody of her. I cannot take her (Jovon's) place.”