On the Job 

Noah Dressell is set to graduate in February from the Toledo Police Academy —
18 years to the month after his father, Toledo Detective Keith Dressel, was gunned down by
a teenage drug dealer.

In early December, as the elder Dressel’s killer — Robert Jobe, inmate No. A567481 at the Marion Correctional Institution — anticipated his first parole hearing, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost stood ready to fight it.

“The notion of Robert Jobe returning to the streets where he fatally shot Detective Dressel — the same streets that the detective’s son may soon be patrolling — is, to say the least, chilling,” Yost wrote to the Ohio Parole Board.

Jobe, who was 15 at the time of the fatal shooting, was with Sherman Powell, 19, on a corner in north Toledo at 2 a.m. on Feb. 21, 2007, when Dressel and two other vice detectives pulled up in their car and interrupted what they believed was a drug deal in progress.

When Powell fled, two of the detectives took off after him, leaving Dressel with Jobe. The two later testified that they heard a rapid series of gunshots. When one of the detectives stopped his pursuit and returned to the car, he found Dressel on the ground, shot in the chest, firing at the fleeing suspect.
Dressel died a short time later at Mercy St. Vincent's Medical Center. He was 35 and left behind a wife and two young children, Sydney, 7, and Noah, 4.

Jobe, who had an extensive criminal record, turned himself in to his parole officer hours after the shooting. He was tried as an adult, convicted of murder and sentenced to 18 years to life in prison. He avoided a mandatory life sentence when the jury acquitted him of the more serious charge of aggravated murder.

In his letter to the board, AG Yost said Jobe had not earned the right to be free:
“Reports indicate that he has committed dozens of violations in prison over the years, including 10 in the past year alone. He clearly has not been rehabilitated, and his release would surely pose a danger to the community at large.

I ask that you consider the highly serious nature of this crime, Jobe’s behavioral history in prison, the enduring suffering of his family, and the importance of protecting the public trust in the justice system — and deny Robert Jobe’s request for parole.”

Dressel’s mother, Larraine, also implored the Parole Board to keep Jobe locked up. She recently told a Toledo TV station that she is concerned for her family’s safety after receiving threatening phone calls and letters from people she suspects are associated with Jobe.

On Dec. 5, the Ohio Parole Board denied Jobe’s request.