Scioto man gets life sentence following murder trial

Staff report

PORTSMOUTH — A Scioto County teen got a life sentence after a five-day murder trial for shooting a man at a graduation party last summer after a jury rejected his claim of self defense.
On Friday, Aden Greene, 18, was sentenced to life in prison and will not be able to apply for parole until 2051 after a jury found him guilty of murder and felonious assault for shooting a teenager at a party on July 29, 2023.
According to a press release from the Scioto County Prosecutor’s Office, the case began last summer when deputies with the Scioto County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call about a shooting at a house party in Rigrish Addition off State Route 335 near Minford.
When deputies arrived, they found Chase McQuinley, 20, unresponsive after being shot multiple times. They attempted life saving measures until an EMS unit arrived. EMTs arrived on scene and used a cardiac monitor on McQuinley but were unable to detect any heart activity. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Detectives from the Sheriff’s Office with assistance from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation interviewed witnesses and the suspect was identified as Greene, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, and a manhunt was begun for him.
Greene was initially charged in the juvenile court. When the court was notified on Aug. 1, 2023, that Greene had hired an attorney, the prosecutor’s office demanded his immediate surrender. Greene turned himself in two days later.
The case initially went through the juvenile court but was transferred to adult court in October 2023. Greene filed a notice to the Court indicating that he intended to claim self-defense at trial, which was originally scheduled for April.
A jury trial began on July 22 and the prosecution presented 23 witnesses, 15 of whom were party attendees, over four days and introduced over 100 exhibits.
The defense called two witnesses along with Greene.
The evidence at trial was that a large house party starting in the evening of July 28, 2023, was hosted by recent high school graduates while their parents were out of town. According to the press release, it was estimated that there were more than 100 people at the party and testimony indicated that most of the party goers were drinking alcohol, and a large number were also smoking marijuana.
Greene went to the party armed with a .45 caliber semi-automatic Glock handgun and he was showing off the handgun throughout the course of the evening. Witnesses also testified that Greene was drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana-filled cigars, commonly referred to as “blunts,” during the course of the evening.
At some point an altercation between Greene and another party-goer occurred after an argument over another juvenile who had been pushed into a backyard pool. Witnesses said the argument progressed into a brief physical altercation, although no witnesses indicated that any punches were thrown. Following this altercation, the testimony was almost entirely consistent that this individual turned and walked away from Greene, who followed with his gun drawn and pointed to the back of the other person’s head.
Witnesses indicated that they saw Greene “rack” a round in the chamber of his gun during this time and stated that he was making confrontational statements to this individual.
As the gun was pointed at this individual’s head, McQuinley intervened and struck Greene in the head with a bottle to defend his friend.
Greene then quickly turned his weapon towards McQuinley and fired multiple shots in his direction.
McQuinley suffered three gunshot wounds, including a fatal wound, which entered the rear of his right shoulder and travelled in a back-to-front trajectory and impacted both his lungs and his heart. Testimony from the forensic pathologist was that the fatal wound was non-survivable.
One of the bullets also struck another party-goer in the lower leg and another party-goer indicated that he suffered a bullet graze injury to his hand.
On the witness stand, Greene admitted to being the shooter but claimed that he only fired due to fear of impending death.
Greene tried to claim that many individuals were armed at the party, testimony that was refuted by every witness who took the stand at trial. Greene also attempted to claim that he was struck three times by a hard object, testimony that once again was directly contradicted by the other witnesses at trial. Greene admitted to fleeing the scene and travelling to Cincinnati following the shooting. Greene also admitted that he had disposed of the murder weapon shortly after the shooting.
The jury rejected Greene’s claims of self-defense, finding him guilty of McQuinley’s murder, two counts of felonious assault relating to McQuinley and another count of felonious assault related to the party-goer struck by a bullet in the leg.
Greene was found not guilty of the felonious assault count related to the graze injury to a party-goer’s hand.
Scioto County Common Pleas Judge Mark Kuhn imposed a life sentence in the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections on Greene, with no possibility of parole for at least 27 years.
“This is a tragic and senseless case which has devastated Nathaniel McQuinley’s family and shaken many young men and women in this community and their parents,” said Scioto County Prosecutor Shane Tieman. “I want to once again extend my deepest condolences to Nate’s loved ones and hope that Greene’s conviction and sentence provides them some small measure of closure as they continue to mourn his death. Self-defense is never appropriate when someone makes the choices that Aden Greene made on that fateful evening.”

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