3-Hour Crime Spree Lands Cleveland Man In Prison

CLEVELAND — A Cleveland man was sentenced to prison for crime spree which lasted three hours, prosecutors said.

Clifford Gillespie, 44, carjacked an 83-year-old woman at gunpoint in a church parking lot on April 28, 2019. He then drove to a laundromat near E. 63rd Street and began fondling himself in the parking lot in front of a woman and her cousin.

When the women told him to stop, he ran to his car to get a gun. The women ran inside the laundromat and called the police and Gillespie drove away.

Cleveland police then spotted the stolen car near E. 74th. Officers tried to get Gillespie to pull over, he refused, and a brief car chase ensued. Gillespie then parked the car and ran into a wooded area near E. 79nth.

He hid inside a tent as officers from Cleveland and the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit ordered him to surrender. He refused and tried to run toward E. 83rd, before he pointed his gun at police. Officers fired at Gillespie, hitting him in the leg and arm.

Officers gave him first aid until EMS took him to a hospital for treatment. When Gillespie was recovered he was arrested.

“This one-man wrecking crew endangered the lives of numerous victims during his violent crime spree,” said Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley. “We are all much safer without this criminal running rampant through our streets.”

This week, Gillespie was sentenced to 15 to 16 years in prison.