Dayton, OH: Inmate indicted on murder for 1997 beating of ex-girlfriend

By Doug Page, Staff Writer
8:06 PM Tuesday, December 21, 2010
DAYTON — A Montgomery County grand jury has indicted an Allen Correctional Institution inmate on a murder charge in the 1997 New Year’s Eve beating of his ex-girlfriend.
The woman, Deborah Nooks, was left blind, brain-damaged and only able to communicate for years by blinking her eyes. She spent 13 years in a nursing home, dying in early August 2009.
Ralph E. Donaldson pleaded guilty March 17, 1997, to attempted murder and was sentenced to eight years in prison. He also was to serve up to 12 years for violating his parole on aggravated robbery charges.
Following Nooks’ death in 2009, her family pressed prosecutors to file murder charges.
“We never gave up,” Nooks’ sister, Annette Dillard, said Tuesday on hearing of Monday’s indictment. “Our prayers have been answered.”
Donaldson has an initial court appearance Jan. 4 in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court, according to Greg Flannagan of the Prosecutor’s Office.
According to court records, Donaldson and Nooks, both parolees, met at a halfway house in 1995. Nooks had served four years on a robbery conviction and Donaldson 11 years of a 33-year sentence for aggravated robbery.
Authorities knew Nooks and Donaldson were in a relationship — a violation of their paroles — and warned them to break it off. In 1996 alone, Donaldson violated his parole three times, but it was never revoked.
When Nooks tried to break off the relationship that New Year’s Eve, Donaldson attacked her, including stomping her head with his boots.