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Daniel Wood pleaded guilty to aggravated murder on January 17, 2025, in the killing of Lucinda Wright, 76, in Lima, Ohio, and received a sentence of 30 years to life in prison. Judge Jeffrey Reed dismissed the other four counts under the plea agreement and imposed the jointly recommended sentence. Reed explained that Wood would be eligible for parole after 30 years but that release is not guaranteed. Because the judge followed the jointly recommended sentence, Wood cannot appeal it. Wright's family had not wanted the case to go to trial.

Police found Wright dead at 1840 Mound Road shortly after 7 p.m. on Monday, January 8, 2024, after being sent there about a possible deceased person. She had been stabbed several times in the torso and her throat had been cut. Her body was taken to the Lucas County Coroner's Office for an autopsy. Her Toyota Camry, credit cards, televisions and Notre Dame sports memorabilia had been stolen. Wright lived at the house, and Allen County Auditor records listed her as its owner. No family or personal relationship between Wood and Wright was reported.

By January 9, 2024, police had found Wood driving Wright's Toyota near Market and Metcalf streets in Lima and taken him into custody without incident. A later report placed the car at a gas station in the 600 block of West Market Street, where Wood and a passenger were taken into custody. Wright's credit cards had been used at two area convenience stores, and surveillance video from those stores showed a man driving the stolen Toyota.

Court records described Wood admitting in a police interview that he entered Wright's home with an Airsoft pistol and a knife intending to steal items, and confessing to killing her. In the recorded interview after his arrest, Wood tells detectives he knew Wright lived down the road and had a car. He says he planned to take it for transportation and a place to stay, entered through an unlocked back door and stabbed Wright when she was home and caught him off guard. He says he took items and her car, spent the night at an acquaintance's home and tells detectives where to find his clothes, a knife and a replica Airsoft pistol. He also says he expects prison time over his absence from the Navy and for a homicide.

Wood was 24 at his arrest and lived in Lima. Court documents listed him as homeless; he was also reported to be enrolled in a drug rehabilitation program run by Lighthouse Behavior Health Solutions and living in a rented house on Mound Road. At sentencing in January 2025, the prosecutor said Wood had been on an unauthorized absence from the U.S. Navy at the time of the offense and had no prior criminal record.

Wood was arraigned in Lima Municipal Court on January 11, 2024, on a murder charge, with bond set at $2 million. On January 18, 2024, he waived his preliminary hearing on one count of murder tied to an underlying aggravated robbery, and the case was bound over to Allen County Common Pleas Court. An Allen County grand jury indicted him in February 2024 on five counts: aggravated murder, murder, aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary and grand theft of a motor vehicle.

A plea of not guilty by reason of insanity was entered on Wood's behalf on February 16, 2024. At his March 11, 2024, arraignment, his public defender entered not guilty pleas to all five counts. That day, Reed ruled Wood competent to stand trial based on a psychological evaluation conducted on February 29, 2024, at the Forensic Psychiatry Center for Western Ohio. Reed also authorized the defense to obtain a second evaluation from a private psychologist to assess Wood's mental state at the time of the incident.