Teen pleads guilty to killing another teen found near stolen car in Driving Park
A Columbus teenager involved in the fatal shooting of another teen found dead near a stolen vehicle will spend at least 10 years in prison.
Keith Waddell III, who is now 18, pleaded guilty in Franklin County Common Pleas Court to a count of voluntary manslaughter in connection with the July 6, 2022, homicide of 18-year-old Nelson Conley Jr. Waddell was 16 at the time of the shooting.
Judge Kim Brown sentenced Waddell earlier this month to serve a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of 13½ years behind bars.
Columbus police said Conley had been found fatally shot around 11 a.m. July 6, 2022, in an alley off the 1000 block of Ellsworth Avenue, east of Lockbourne Road in the city's Driving Park neighborhood. A stolen vehicle was found close to the scene and police previously told The Dispatch that both Conley and Waddell, who was 16 at the time, had connections to groups of teenagers known to be involved in car thefts.
Detectives believe Conley had been shot on Miller Avenue and ran down the alley before collapsing.
Voluntary manslaughter, the charge Waddell pleaded guilty to, is defined under law as knowingly causing another person's death "while under the influence of sudden passion or in a sudden fit of rage, either of which is brought on by serious provocation" from the victim.
Waddell had been scheduled to go to trial on July 17, but chose to plead guilty before trial.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio man admits to killing teen found near stolen car in Columbus
