Man finally admits he killed two people; asks forgiveness
It wasn’t until he heard a DNA expert testify that the blood of both victims in a double homicide was found on his coat that Mario D. Hamilton was willing to accept what he had done.
“That’s when I had to come to terms with myself,” Hamilton said Thursday afternoon in a Franklin County Common Pleas courtroom after ending his trial by pleading guilty to two counts of murder and one of felonious assault.
“I’m like, man, cut the malarkey, bud. I did it.”
Judge David Young imposed a mandatory sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 36 years for the murders and gun specifications. He added two years for the felonious assault.
Hamilton said he was so high on alcohol, Xanax and Percocet that he has no memory of fatally shooting one of his closest friends, Van Darling III, 25, and a woman he barely knew, Janae M. Gresham, 23, on April 10, 2016 in Reynoldsburg. He also shot and wounded Enouch J. Kermue, 27.
Based on evidence presented by Assistant Prosecutors Scott Kirschman and Erica Rose, the shootings unfolded as follows:
After a night of partying, Hamilton and the others had left an afterhours club and were traveling in a Mitsubishi Outlander. Without warning, Hamilton, who was in the back seat, pulled a handgun and fired a pointblank shot into the head of Gresham, who was seated beside him, as the SUV neared Wind River and Blackoak drives.
Kermue, in the front passenger seat, jumped out of the SUV, catching a bullet in the shoulder as he escaped.
Darling, the driver, stopped the vehicle at an apartment complex in the 500 block of Postwoods Drive and began arguing with Hamilton, who shot him below the left ear. Darling ran through the complex, pursued by Hamilton, who eventually caught up with him and shot him in the back of the head.
The jury had heard from 15 witnesses over parts of three days before Hamilton decided to plead guilty.
Standing between defense attorneys Karen Phipps and Nikki Churchill, he delivered a six-minute statement, some of which he read from a handwritten note, directed at the victims’ family and friends.
“The horrible, sick, twisted truth behind this crime is a person, me, who was unable to handle a combination of alcohol and a variety of prescription pills, which evidently caused me to make the unconscious decision that led to the death of two innocent people,” he said.
“Although the following words are the last words any of you want to hear, I feel it is my responsibility as a human being and my duty as a child of God to tell you all I am truly sorry.”
Afterward, Van Darling’s mother, Eula Conley, said she found it hard to believe Hamilton’s explanation for the shootings, especially since he methodically chased down her son.
“I think he’s trying to justify his actions by saying he didn’t know what he was doing,” she said. “I think he knew.”
Conley was among four people representing Darling and three representing Gresham who spoke during the sentencing hearing. In addition to expressing their grief about the human losses, most demanded to know why the shootings occurred. Some wished the death penalty was an option.
Darling’s father, Van Darling II, told Hamilton, “I think you deserve the same thing you did to them.”
“If I were one of you, I would want the worst for me,” Hamilton told the families. “For all your health’s sake, please try to forgive me as I try to forgive myself.”