Cleveland man pleads guilty in 2019 killing in North Collinwood neighborhood

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - A Cleveland man accused of fatally injuring another man in the city’s North Collinwood neighborhood in 2019 has accepted a plea deal, according to court records.

David Lewis, 45, pleaded guilty last Thursday to an amended charge of involuntary manslaughter and felonious assault for the December 2019 killing of James Ball Jr.

In exchange for his plea, charges of murder and voluntary manslaughter were dropped.

Police say on Dec. 6, 2019, Lewis hit Ball in the head, causing his death.

The 51-year-old died of blunt impact injuries, according to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Ball’s body was on the ground outside of a muffler shop on East 185th Street for two days before police were called on Dec. 8.

A man told officers he was walking his dogs around noon on Dec. 7 when he first noticed what he thought was a man sleeping on the pavement between two buildings.

While walking his dogs again the next morning, he told police he saw the man, later identified as Ball, was still in the same spot on the ground.

EMS responded and pronounced Ball dead at the scene.

Lewis was arrested in February 2020 and held in the Cuyahoga County Jail on $1,000,000 bond.

Following his guilty plea last week, a judge sentenced Lewis to serve eight years in the Lorain Correctional Institution.

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