Prosecutor Mat Heck indicated Friday his office plans to file for an automatic transfer to adult court in the case against 17-year-old Kylen Jamal Gregory, who is accused in the Sept. 4 fatal shooting of Ronnie Bowers after both left AlterFest.
“It is our opinion that this case should be a mandatory transfer,” Heck said in a statement released Friday afternoon.
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“Since the decision was just handed down by the newly-constituted Ohio Supreme Court, we will ask the juvenile court judge to suspend any further amenability hearings and immediately transfer the case to the adult court,” the statement read.
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Kettering’s first gun-related homicide since 2007 is being heard by Judge Anthony Capizzi. It is among about six juvenile cases in the county that prosecutors have filed for mandatory transfers on, according to Heck
The Gregory case appeared in November to be headed toward adult court, after Heck’s office filed for a transfer in the case that he said “cries out” for the move. However, the Supreme Court in December ruled the mandatory transfer for juveniles unconstitutional.
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Shortly before her retirement, Supreme Court Justice Judith Lanzinger authored a decision that said mandatory bindover laws violated the due process rights of juveniles. Heck’s office asked that the decision be reconsidered.
In the meantime, Gregory’s amenability hearing went forward after two teens - now ages 17 and 15 - who were with the defendant that night testified against him. They said he fired a shot at the rear of Bowers’ vehicle as the victim sought to flee from a dispute on Willowdale Avenue.
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Bowers died two days later – on Sept. 6 - in what the coroner ruled a homicide.
Last Wednesday – a day before the Supreme Court’s latest decision – the amenability hearing began. Nine witnesses testified before Capizzi continued it until July 7.
Gregory was one of four teens – including an 18-year-old – taken into custody after Bowers was shot about 9 p.m. the Sunday night of Labor Day weekend in the 800 block of Willowdale. Gregory was one of three charged, all of them juveniles.
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The two others testified against him in late January as part of a sealed plea agreement. They said their group tracked down Bowers and his friends after a “beef” between the two factions at AlterFest.
The two witnesses each pleaded guilty in juvenile court to two counts of felony tampering with evidence, and one count each of misdemeanor assault and aggravated menacing.
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Capizzi handed down maximum sentences for both, saying the 17-year-old was in a position to prevent the shooting and the 15-year-old showed no remorse.
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