A Winton Hills man has been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for the shooting death of a 12-year-old boy last year.
Darius McGrew, 32, was set to go on trial this week on numerous charges, including aggravated murder, in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. He instead pleaded guilty Sept. 22 to involuntary manslaughter and felonious assault.
Judge Chris Wagner immediately sentenced McGrew to 23 to 28 and a half years in prison, matching the sentencing recommendation McGrew's attorneys and prosecutors agree to.
Wagner said in court that the boy's killing is "another senseless crime involving guns in our community."
McGrew shot and killed 12-year-old Nehemiah McMillonin an effort to retrieve a vehicle stolen, prosecutors said in court filings.
McGrew chased the stolen vehicle down a nearby street, blocked it in place with another vehicle and fired several rounds at the juveniles inside, striking Nehemiah in the chest, prosecutors added. A 13-year-old was hit in the arm by gunfire, but survived.
Investigators recovered four 9 mm shell casings at the crime scene and another one from inside McGrew's vehicle. A forensic analysis by the Hamilton County Coroner's Office found that all the casings were fired from the same gun.
Court documents state McGrew wasn't legally allowed to own a gun at the time because of a 2019 robbery conviction.
Mallory Reed, one of McGrew's attorneys, said her client is accepting responsibility for his role in what she described as an "incredibly sad and tragic" situation. She asked the judge to impose the recommended sentence in the plea agreement.
"I just want to apologize to everybody," McGrew said in court.
Abdul McMillon, the boy's father, said his family has been wracked with grief ever since the killing. While McGrew will one day be released from prison, McMillon said he'll never see Nehemiah again.
"You took my son away from me," McMillon said. "You could've called the police, anything, man."
"Now, I'm suffering," he said. "It hurts."
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Father says man who killed boy over stolen vehicle 'could've called the police'
