Vape shop manager who fired shots in deadly 2023 burglary sentenced to prison

The manager of a Delhi Township vape shop who fired shots during a burglary attempt in 2023 that left a 16-year-old dead and another burglary suspect wounded will spend nearly a decade in jail.

A judge sentenced 29-year-old Tony Thacker to eight to nine years in prison for the shooting on Monday; Thacker was convicted by a jury on Aug. 12 on two counts of felonious assault with firearm specifications.

Thacker faced a maximum sentenced of up to 22 years, which prosecutors wanted the judge to hand down. Instead, he was given the minimum sentence possible, though his lawyers said they still plan to appeal.

Before Thacker's sentencing, he pleaded with Judge Wende Cross for a lighter sentence.

"This was something that was brought to me I never asked for this all I wanted to do was work and live my life," said Thacker. "At the time, I did what I thought I had to do to protect myself and my girlfriend, I never wanted to hurt anybody, this is something I live with every day and I will continue to live with every day."

He was never charged with anything tied to the death of 16-year-old Travis Johnson, but he was charged with wounding one of the burglary suspects as they tried to flee in a car.

"All the people that were inside of the store were already outside of the store at the time and they were driving away," said Mary Polston, assistant prosecutor.

Polston argued against self-defense saying Thacker was no longer in danger once the burglary suspects retreated.

According to Hamilton County Prosecutor Melissa Powers, Thacker was living in the back of VIP Smoke Shop in Delhi when several suspects, many of whom were also arrested for the deadly burglary attempt, attempted to break into the store at around 1 a.m. on October 20, 2023.

Powers said Thacker came to the front of the store with a gun after the burglary suspects broke windows in the business to get inside and the reason he was charged was because he kept firing after the threat was over.

"Thacker brought a firearm to the front of the store and immediately began firing at the would-be burglars," said Powers. "Instead of ceasing the use of deadly force once the situation had been resolved, Thacker continued to fire at the retreating subjects even as they drove away, striking one of them in the car."

The person shot in the car was 19-year-old Amontae Carter, who was also later arrested. Carter was ultimately indicted on two counts of murder, two counts of burglary and one count of possession of criminal tools.

Besides Carter, police also arrested 18-year-old Messiah Hart for burglary and murder. Also arrested and charged was a 15-year-old, a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old, who were all indicted on murder and burglary charges.

"Doesn't make sense to me, so my concern is the verdict is inconsistent, the jury found he acted in self-defense and they were not able to disprove it on two other victims all of this happened at the same time literally within seconds," said Richard Goldberg, Thacker's attorney.

Thacker's attorney told WCPO in December that Thacker was the victim in this case and said he fired in self-defense. On Monday, Goldberg asked Judge Cross to consider Thacker's state of mine saying he was not only shot at in the store a month prior to this case, but was stabbed in his home.

"There's only one person who was in his shoes that night of course it was tony thacker and no members of the jury or anybody here in the courtroom could put themselves in his shoes," said Goldberg.

Goldberg said Thacker remained inside the store while firing. Goldberg also said Thacker had been the victim of several burglaries in the past. A month before the October incident, Thacker was robbed by other perpetrators inside the store wearing masks, according to Goldberg.

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