How to Catch a Criminal: Mistaken Identity Leads to Innocent Man's Murder

Every officer with a decent amount of time on the job knows the unexpected turns an investigation can take. Seeing a major case through to completion often involves giving up on a theory and taking your investigation in a different direction as new information becomes available. In How to Catch A Criminal, we look at the many ways not-so-perfect crimes are solved. This month, an innocent man ends up the target of a poorly planned hit.

It has been said that a man should keep his friends close and his enemies closer. There may be some truth to this statement, but it should also be said that it is best not to make enemies of your friends. Doing so can have undesired consequences. Plenty of blood has been spilled over the years thanks to betrayal between friends. Unfortunately, sometimes the bloodshed includes innocent people.

In the morning hours of May 26, 2006, 31-year-old Daniel E. Ott and his fiancée Maryann Ricker were awoken by their dog barking, seemingly to get their attention. Ott was a talented horticulturist whose career in was taking off. He was set to move from his home in Burton, Ohio, to Michigan to start a new lucrative job the following month. As Ricker and Ott woke up, planning to let the dog out for the morning, they figured out the true reason for the barking. Standing in their bedroom was a masked intruder, aiming a shotgun at them. The armed man asked Daniel his name. After Daniel answered, he and his fiancée were ordered to lie face down while the men bound them with duct tape.

The man hastily tied up Daniel, but as he moved to do the same to Maryann, Daniel slipped out of his restraints and attacked the intruder. Daniel did his best to save he and Maryann's lives, but he suffered a shotgun blast to the chest in the struggle. The intruder fled and Maryann managed to call 911, but there was no hope for Daniel Ott. First responders arrived and rushed him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

By all accounts, Daniel E. Ott was a great guy. He was well liked and respected in his field. As far as anyone could tell, there was no reason anyone would want him dead. This fact surprised detectives because the murder appeared to be targeted. Maryann informed them the killer demanded to know Daniel's name, which indicated two things. First, the killer did not know Daniel. Second, the killing wasn't random, because if it were, there would be no need to identify Daniel before the shooting. This meant the killer was most likely hired by someone who wanted Daniel dead. There had to have been a reason Daniel Ott was the target of a hired killing, but it would take 10 years to completely uncover that reason. In truth the killer was sent to kill Daniel Ott, but not Daniel E. Ott.

Daniel C. Ott, known to his friends as “Red,” thanks to his distinctive hair color, was the owner of a bar in Cleveland in the 1970s. Red was known to have connections with a local biker gang as well as some other undesirable types thanks to their patronage of his tavern. When an acquaintance offered to sell him a Chevrolet Corvette, Red couldn’t say no. After using the car for some time, Red tried to trade it in for something new. When he brought it to a car dealership, law enforcement was called. As it turned out, the sleek sports car he bought from a shady character was stolen. Red was able to plead ignorance and convince the officers he did not know the car was stolen when he bought it, and he avoided arrest. He decided to take matters into his own hands and track down the guy who sold him the car for a refund. Instead, Red discovered his acquaintance was running a growing chop shop operation. Rather than opt for any rough stuff, Red wanted it to be cut into the business.

Through the '80s, and '90s, Red streamlined the chop shop and expanded the theft ring into his own empire. Red also stole many of the vehicles himself, becoming an extremely skilled car thief. Red stole and sold everything from heavy construction equipment to private planes. At times, he was making more than six figures a month, as the most prolific car thief in the state. Thanks to his biker gang connections, nobody on the criminal side wanted to cross him or interfere with his business. Red also had a method for keeping law enforcement off his back. Given his particular line of work, Red tended to rub elbows with other car thieves, white collar fraudsters, rival biker gangs, and more. Whatever he found himself the subject of an investigation, Red would place a phone call to the investigators and provide them with names and whereabouts of his wanted associates, as well as information about their crimes. In exchange for these highly sought after details, Red was able to minimize his arrests as he ran his chop shop enterprise.

As Red got older, his favorite car was still the Corvette. Despite advances in security features making them harder to steal over the years, Red adapted with the times, usually stealing vehicles directly from car dealerships. By the year 2000 Red was in his 60s. His preferred method of theft was to play the part of a wealthy older gentleman interested in buying a Corvette with cash. He would talk his way into a solo test drive and make a copy of the key before returning the car. He would then return after business hours and simply drive the car off the lot. During his career, Red came to know Joseph Rosebrook, another big time Ohio chop shop operator, who was willing to pay top dollar for every Corvette red could bring him. Rosebrook was also skilled at avoiding prosecution. For instance, a case against him fell apart when an informant refused to testify against him after barely surviving a car bombing.

In 2005, the Logan County Sheriff's Office had gathered enough evidence to charge Rosebrook for his car theft ring. Incarcerated and awaiting trial, Joseph Rosebrook reached out to Red with an offer. Rosebrook would pay a handsome sum if Red would kill one of the witnesses in his case. As part of the Sheriff's Office’s investigation into the chop shop, Red’s involvement had been uncovered. Facing possible charges himself, Red decided to make a deal with the investigators. In exchange for avoiding charges, he told them about Rosebrook’s plot to have the witness killed, and testified against him in court. Rosebrook ended up with a 10-year sentence. Rosebrook did not take this betrayal lying down.

Joseph Rosebrook befriended another inmate from Logan County who was going to be released soon. He offered his fellow inmate, Chad South, $10,000 in exchange for tracking down and killing Red, real name Daniel C. Ott. Upon his release in 2006, South got to work, and before long located a Daniel Ott in the greater Cleveland area. Despite the more than 30-year age difference between Red and man he found, South went ahead with the plan. This resulted in the murder of Daniel E. Ott on May 26, 2006.

After determining Daniel E. Ott was possibly mistaken for Red, detectives from multiple agencies in Ohio spent years monitoring wiretaps and interviewing jailhouse informants to crack the case. Part of the reason it took so long to identify a suspect was because many potential witnesses refuse to talk due to fear of death for turning on Rosebrook. Some witnesses had to be offered immunity from prosecution because their knowledge of the murder for hire plot would implicate them as part of the chop shop operation. Finally, detectives were able to squeeze enough information out of the informants to confidently identify Chad South as the former inmate hired to commit the murder. 

South and Rosebrook were brought to trial in 2016 for charges of aggravated murder and conspiracy to commit murder, for killing Daniel E. Ott, and plotting to kill Daniel C. Ott. The investigation also uncovered South’s getaway driver was his girlfriend, Mindie Stanifer. Stanifer would end up pleading guilty to lesser charges in exchange for testifying against Chad South. In Ott’s trial, prosecutors were able to include evidence from the first murder-for-hire case Rosebrook was serving time for to explain why he would want Daniel Ott dead. Both South and Rosebrook were found guilty on all counts at their respective trials. Each man received a life sentence, and the surviving Daniel Ott eventually served three years in prison for stealing Corvettes in the years after Rosebrook’s conviction.