WOIO reported Maurice Thompson was sentenced to life in prison in the Public Square shooting of Juan Rampon Ruiz Lopez.

Thursday's life term is the sentence on the counts WOIO said the jury found. Parole eligibility after 27 years is what the station reported. It is not a release date. WOIO's May 28, 2024, account said he pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder along with murder, felonious assault, aggravated robbery and robbery. Thursday's list of guilty counts does not include aggravated murder. The station did not say that count was dismissed.

WOIO reported Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, that Maurice Thompson, 21, was sentenced to life in prison for fatally shooting a man at an RTA bus stop on Public Square in Cleveland, and that his first chance at parole is after he serves 27 years. The station reported a jury last week found him guilty of murder, felonious assault, aggravated robbery and robbery. WOIO's Oct. 20 story said he would be sentenced on Oct. 22 and used the same list of guilty counts. The station reported he killed Juan Rampon Ruiz Lopez, 36, of Cleveland. Cleveland police said Lopez was shot multiple times around 1 a.m. on March 22, 2024, and that EMS took him to MetroHealth Medical Center, where he died on March 25, 2024, WOIO reported.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley said Thompson and Lopez were sitting next to each other and that when both stood up, Thompson shot him and fled on foot, WOIO reported. The station reported that a short time later Thompson allegedly carjacked a 31-year-old man at gunpoint near Euclid Avenue, and that Thompson was taken into custody on May 13, 2024. The carjack is the word WOIO used, with allegedly. The guilty counts the station listed Thursday are murder, felonious assault, aggravated robbery and robbery. The station did not say which of those counts is the carjack.

WOIO's May 28, 2024, story, when he was arraigned, described him as 18 and said he pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault, aggravated robbery and robbery. That story said a judge set bond at $1 million and that he was due back June 7. Later WOIO stories, in January and March 2026, still described a not-guilty plea to that same list, including aggravated murder, and said trial dates had been continued. Thursday's account of the verdict does not list aggravated murder among the counts the jury found. WOIO did not report a dismissal of that count. The life sentence with parole eligibility after 27 years is what the station said the court imposed Thursday on the counts it said the jury found. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.