A man accused of shooting three people outside a Whitmer High School football game nearly two years ago as well as a fatal triple shooting near the Jeep plant early the day before pleaded guilty to reduced charges Thursday in Lucas County Common Pleas Court and agreed to a 34-year minimum prison term.
Jaron Phillips, 23, of the 1100 block of Gordon Street, is scheduled for formal sentencing Sept. 23 after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter for the Oct. 6, 2022, wee-hours death of Johnathan Coleman, 26, and to five counts of felonious assault for two other people shot in that incident and for the shootings outside Whitmer Stadium on the night of Oct. 7, 2022.
Based on discussions in the courtroom Thursday, Judge Dean Mandros will sentence Phillips to 11 to 16½ years for the manslaughter conviction while determining the precise breakdown of sentences for the assault counts and for counts of improper discharge of a firearm at a school or school function and participation in a criminal gang to which Phillips also pleaded guilty Thursday. All of the counts except the last have mandatory firearms specifications attached.
The 34-year sentencing target was agreed to by Phillips, his lawyers, and Kenneth Walz, the assistant Lucas County prosecutor who negotiated the plea. Additional time of up to 5½ years relating to the involuntary manslaughter count would only occur if Phillips is found to misbehave while in prison.
Various court proceedings revealed that one of the Whitmer shooting’s victims, Maurice Winfree, had been targeted as a member of a gang rivaling that of which Phillips was a member. Winfree, a 17-year-old girl, and an adult woman were hit when an occupant of a blue Dodge Charger fired more than two dozen times toward people standing near a concessions stand outside Whitmer Stadium during the fourth quarter of a game against Central Catholic High School.
The shooting about 2:30 a.m. the previous day at Stickney Avenue and North Expressway Drive targeted Carmanetta Wilson, a witness in a gang-related shooting earlier in 2022 that killed a 10-year-old girl. Killed instead was Johnathan Coleman, 26, who had agreed to give Wilson and another woman rides home from work, while Wilson suffered a minor injury and the other woman was seriously wounded.
The gunfire outside the football game prompted a mass panic and resulted in the game being called off during the fourth quarter of a rout in Whitmer’s favor.
In both shootings, Phillips is alleged to have had help in locating his intended targets.
D’Juan Gott, 18, admitted in Lucas County Juvenile Court early this year to a single count of complicity to felonious assault and was found delinquent for having called Phillips to tell him Winfree’s location. He is nearing the end of a one-year sentence to a juvenile facility that included four months’ credit for time served.
A third co-defendant in the Whitmer shooting, Kejuan Lucas, was indicted on the same felonious assault and firearms charges as Phillips but has remained at large since then.
And in relation to the shooting at Stickney and North Expressway, Andre Jackson, 32, of the 900 block of Mason Street, is also charged with alternative counts of aggravated murder and murder, plus two counts of attempted murder, three counts of felonious assault, and one count of improper discharge of a firearm.
He is currently scheduled for trial Sept. 23, although the 9:30 a.m. start time conflicts with the 11 a.m. start time for Phillips’ sentencing hearing.
Most Popular
Comments / 0