Euclid man in prison for fatal crash facing forgery charges

A Euclid man serving an 18-year prison sentence for the 2007 death of Eastlake resident Edmund “Eddy” Roland could be facing more time behind bars.

Mario Redding, 31, sought early release from prison last year. He argued that he was a changed man and cited a series of certificates and letters he obtained while serving in prison. Some of the documents, however, were forged.

The discrepancies were first discovered by Roland’s brother, Jeff Cook of Mentor. Cook had previously worked at Lake Erie Correctional

Institution, and while there, he overheard inmates talk about forging certificates.

After Redding filed his request for early release, Cook began his own investigation into the documents and found that at least four had been falsified.

Documents from the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office confirm there were inaccuracies on at least four of the records Redding provided.

A more thorough investigation was launched by the Ohio Highway Patrol, Cook said.

Redding withdrew his motion for early release last August.

He is now facing charges

stemming from the allegedly forged documents, according to Cuyahoga County Court records.

A Cuyahoga County grand jury indicted Redding on one count of tampering with records and four counts of forgery. An arraignment hearing is scheduled for March 21.

Cook called the news “fantastic.”

“I put a lot of work into this and it finally paid off,” he said.

In July 2007, Redding ran a stop sign and crashed into Roland’s Honda motorcycle on the victim’s 21st birthday.

Roland was thrown from his bike at the corner of E. 186th Street and St. Clair Avenue in Cleveland and died from his injuries in the hospital. Redding was

out on bond on a pending drug case and was driving without a license. He fled the scene without stopping.

Redding pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide and unrelated counts of trafficking in crack cocaine and possession of crack. He has been in prison since Dec. 6, 2007.

He filed his first motion for judicial release in December 2016, but was denied without a hearing based on his multiple convictions and a negative institutional support.

During his time in prison, Redding racked up more than 79 infractions, according to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, including for threatening the lives of officers, cell phone violations and drug offenses.

NEWS-HERALD FILE Jeff Cook, right, the brother of the late Edmund Roland shows a photograph of Roland to his killer, Mario Redding, center, along with defense attorney Paul Daiker after reading a prepared statement during Redding’s sentencing in November 2007, in the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas courtroom of Judge Richard Ambrose in Cleveland.