Canton Township man pleads guilty to shooting wife’s lover
Jon Andreassi/Observer-Reporter
Melvin Ringer is escorted by state police troopers after shooting his estranged wife’s boyfriend in the back in Canton Township on April 13, 2022.
Melvin Charles Ringer
A man who shot his wife’s lover in the back following a dispute at his Canton Township home last year pleaded guilty a month after the victim publicly objected to the plea bargain.
Judge Valarie Costanzo accepted the guilty plea Monday from Melvin Charles Ringer to one felony count of aggravated assault and immediately sentenced him to serve 7 to 14 years in state prison.
Ringer, 41, fired four shots from a .22-caliber rifle at his estranged wife and Everett “Boo” Miller III on April 13, 2022, as they walked away from the Ringers’ home at 1426 Spencer Ave. after she told him she wanted a divorce, state police said. Miller was shot once and Amanda Ringer drove him to Washington Hospital in her vehicle, which also was shot during the incident. Ringer was arrested following an hours-long standoff with state police and charged with two counts of attempted homicide, along with charges of aggravated assault and misdemeanors of reckless endangerment and prohibited possession of a firearm, which was later withdrawn.
During Ringer’s original plea hearing in Washington County Court of Common Pleas on July 6, Miller told Costanzo that he objected to the 7- to- 14-year prison sentence because he thought it was too lenient. Miller also told the judge the bullet is still lodged in his body and narrowly missed both his heart and spine.
“I don’t agree to it and I’m not going to,” Miller said last month. “I’d rather him go to trial and walk away from it. … This is a slap on the wrist.”
Ringer’s defense attorney, Chad Schneider, countered that his client was heavily intoxicated at the time and also had just learned about the love triangle just before the shooting, meaning he could not form an intent to kill.
Costanzo delayed the hearing so she could further review Miller’s statements and the facts of the case. She agreed to accept the original plea deal Monday, although Miller did not attend the second plea hearing.
Ringer, who has been jailed on $750,000 bond since his arrest, will be given credit for time served.