COURTS

Court roundup: Two men in fatal shootings get less time than woman who shot at, missed cops

Jordan Laird
The Columbus Dispatch

Two men who were convicted in connection with fatal shootings and a woman who shot at Columbus police officers have received prison sentences in separate cases in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.

Trevon Elder, 27, of Eastgate, is facing less than three more years behind bars after he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in connection with a 2020 shootout inside a home on the city's South Side.

Columbus police were called July 2, 2020 to a South Champion Avenue home, where they found 26-year-old Delano Royster fatally shot and 28-year-old Trevon Marteina seriously injured and attempting to flee.

Later that night, Elder arrived at a local hospital with a gunshot wound, police said.

Homicide detectives said all three men were inside the home when a fight occurred and Elder shot Royster.

Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Richard A. Frye sentenced Elder on Tuesday to five years in prison for his guilty plea to involuntary manslaughter under a plea agreement with the county prosecutor's office. In return, prosecutors dropped a murder charge.

Elder has 825 days, or more than two years, of jail time credit toward the five-year sentence.

Woman who shot man, missed officers, gets at least 30 years

Meanwhile, a Columbus woman who shot a man, but missed two police officers in 2020 is facing at least three decades in prison.

Suney Coleman, 25, pleaded guilty in August to robbery, felonious assault and two counts of felonious assault of a police officer.

Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Court Judge Andy Miller sentenced Coleman on Tuesday to an indefinite prison term of 30 years to 33 years.

According to county prosecutors, Coleman shot a man sitting in his car on Nov. 8, 2020 at Deshler Park on the Southeast Side. The victim survived.

Later that month, on Nov. 19, 2020, Coleman brandished a gun while demanding money from a man parked outside a Walgreens, prosecutors said. The man told Coleman he could get money from an ATM inside the store, but when he entered the store he told employees and they called police.

Police arrived a few minutes later and responding officers found Coleman crouched down, hiding next to a nearby McDonald's dumpster.

Coleman shot at two officers until her ammunition ran out, prosecutors said, but neither officer was injured.

Judge continues to reject Reagan Tokes Act in sentencing

A 20-year-old Columbus man will spend a decade behind bars in connection with a fatal 2020 shooting because Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Carl A. Aveni continues to sentence defendants without regard to the Reagan Tokes Act.

The act was named for a 21-year-old Ohio State University student who was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a prison parolee in 2017 as she left her job at a Short North bar.

On July 5, 2020, Columbus police homicide detectives say Little Ahmere K. Little shot 17-year-old Daimar Bowden during an altercation in the 1400 block of West Rich Street.

Aveni sentenced Ahmere K. Little to 10 years on Aug. 26 for voluntary manslaughter with a gun.

Aveni did not give Little an indefinite prison sentence as required by the Reagan Tokes Act, which requires judges to use an indefinite sentence instead of a definite sentence, leaving the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to essentially decide if the offender behaves properly in prison or should be held for a longer period based on the sentence time.

Aveni wrote in his sentencing entry for Little that "the court declines to issue an indeterminate sentence, having concluded that the indeterminate sentencing structure of (the Reagan Tokes Act) is unconstitutional."

The 10th District Court of Appeals in Franklin County is currently considering the constitutionality of indefinite sentences. The matter will likely be ultimately by the Ohio Supreme Court.

In the meantime, the Franklin County Prosecutor's office has appealed Little's case to the 10th District Court of Appeals Court as it has other cases where Aveni did not order n indefinite sentence.

jlaird@dispatch.com

@LairdWrites