Final suspect in 2017 fatal shooting of Akron man sentenced to 23 years in prison
Christopher Johnson, a 31-year-old Akron man, accepted a guilty plea deal with prosecutors on Jan. 8 in the 2017 shooting death of Brandon Belleville one week before a jury trial was slated to begin Tuesday.
Judge Alison McCarty sentenced Johnson to 23 years for involuntary manslaughter with a firearm specification and four counts of aggravated robbery. All are first-degree felonies.
Sentencing: Man gets life sentence for murder
These charges were amended from aggravated murder, two counts of murder, aggravated robbery, felonious assault and two counts of having weapons while under disability, according to court documents.
By accepting the agreement, Johnson, represented by attorneys John Greven and Jacob Will, avoided a possible life sentence.
Fourth and final person to plea guilty in shooting
Johnson is the fourth and final person to plead guilty in the 2017 fatal shooting.
According to Akron police, four men kicked in the door of a residence in the 600 block of Minerva Place in Akron on Sept. 19, 2017, and shot and killed Belleville.
The shooting happened during a robbery that had nothing to do with Belleville, prosecutors argued. He was at home at the wrong time.
Police searched for and arrested three suspects, but Johnson alluded investigators. Six years after the shooting, members of the Akron division of Northern Ohio’s fugitive task force arrested him in late June in West Virginia.
Harold Burros is serving a life prison sentence with possible parole after 23 years.
Two others, Cquincey Chatman and Lamarr Jackson, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and aggravated robbery in the crime. In return, they agreed to testify against Burros.
Chatman received 20 years in prison while Jackson was sentenced to 21 years.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Christopher Johnson sentenced to 23 years in 2017 fatal shooting
