Two sentenced in murder outside of Platform Lounge in Columbus, Ohio

admin

[ad_1]

For previous reports on this story, view the video player above.

COLUMBUS (WCMH) – Two men on trial in connection with the murder of Jeffrey Chandler were found guilty of their respective charges Monday.

According to the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, a jury returned a verdict of guilty for 36-year-old Charles Williams, of Columbus, for the murder of Chandler, who was gunned down outside of the Platform Lounge in east Columbus.

Williams shot Chandler on Oct. 22, 2022, at the bar on Country Club Road after a verbal argument escalated. Medical examiners determined that Chandler died from a gunshot fired from a rifle Williams was using during the shooting.

Williams, a security guard at the bar, was arrested in late October and found guilty of one count of murder, one count of felonious assault and one count of discharge over a road. All three carry a three-year gun specification. As well, he was found guilty of tampering with evidence, which includes a one-year gun specification.

Lee Gill, the owner of the bar and a co-defendant in Chandler’s death, wasn’t arrested until Feb. 2, four months after being named a suspect. Lee was found guilty of one count of tampering with evidence with a one-year gun specification after evidence showed he also chased down Chandler during the altercation and fired rounds from a 9mm handgun.

Williams will receive his sentence on April 5 and faces a minimum of 21 years in prison. Gill, 49, who faces a minimum of 21 months in prison, does not yet have a sentencing date scheduled.

A third suspect, Dominic Elmore, 34, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree felony assault with a deadly weapon in October 2023. He received four years of probation.

Police said that all four men were involved in an argument when Williams, Lee and Elmore pulled handguns and began shooting into the car Chandler was sitting in.

Surveillance video showed Chandler climbing from the passenger seat to the driver’s seat of the vehicle and then falling out of the car. The men kept shooting at Chandler as he got up and ran from the scene. One bullet struck him in the back and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

[ad_2]

Source link