OREGON DISTRICT SHOOTER’S FRIEND RELEASED FROM JAIL
Judge: Kollie on house arrest as he awaits his Feb. 20 sentencing.
A federal judge has ordered a friend of the Oregon District mass shooter to be released from jail until his sentencing on gun charges.
Ethan Kollie — the Kettering man whom investigators say helped Connor Betts hide a weapon and body armor that Betts used in the Oregon District shootings — was ordered released from jail on Monday, according to a federal court document signed by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Rose.
Jail records no longer listed Kollie as an inmate. He appeared in federal court on Nov. 20 to ask for pretrial release from jail, and he is due back in court for a sentencing hearing on Feb. 20. Court records say he is under house arrest with electronic monitoring.
Kollie is the only person to have been charged in an investigation of the Aug. 4 mass killing along East Fifth Street, a shooting rampage that left 10 people dead, including Betts, 24, of Bellbrook.
Kollie pleaded guilty in November to federal gun charges. He was alleged to have made false statements about drug use in order to buy guns.
Federal investigators have said that there was no evidence that Kollie, 24, took any part in planning Betts’ actions.
Prosecutors had asked a judge to keep Kollie in jail pending his sentencing.
“He is a habitual drug user with a penchant for firearms and a history of deceit and poor judgment,” the U.S. attorney’s office said in a recent filing in federal court. “The magistrate judge rightfully found that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure Kollie’s safety and the safety of the community. This court should find the same.”