Boy, 16, gets three years for killing girl

A 16-year-old Columbus boy will spend at least three years in a juvenile prison and could do additional time in an adult prison for killing a 15-year-old girl while playing with a gun at a vacant East Side house.

Darnell J. Wells, of the Near East Side, entered an admission Thursday to a charge of reckless homicide as a serious youthful offender in Franklin County Juvenile Court. Wells was among a group of young people hanging out in a vacant house in the 1700 block of East Rich Street near Fairwood Avenue on the evening of Aug. 25, 2018, Assistant Prosecutor Chris Clark said. Wells was playing with a gun and was pointing it at Tamara Lynette Dodson when it discharged, he said.

Dodson, an eighth-grader at Champion Middle School, was rushed to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, where she died about an hour after the shooting. after admitting to stealing about $1.6 million from his former employer.

Yoav Kapah, 68, of Granville, also will have to make restitution to ArmorSource after pleading guilty to theft, tampering with records and tax-related counts before Licking County Common Pleas Judge David Branstool. Sam Shamansky, the Columbus attorney representing Kapah, said his client continues to cooperate with investigators.

Investigators said Kapah began stealing from the company after the owner’s death in early 2012, fraudulently using a company credit card, accepting kickbacks from customers and otherwise siphoning funds in his position as president/CEO.