Teen placed on probation for role in drive-by killing

Keelland Sutton, who was 15 when he was involved in the fatal drive-by shooting of another teen on the East Side last year, was placed on probation Tuesday by a judge in Franklin County Juvenile Court.

Sutton, now 16, admitted last year to a delinquency count of inciting violence in the death of 15-year-old Kaleb White.

White was shot from a passing Chevrolet Impala on the evening of Feb. 12, 2016, as he walked with two other juveniles on Barnett Road north of East Livingston Avenue. Sutton hung out a window of the car and yelled at the pedestrians but was not the gunman, Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Clark said at an earlier hearing.

Anthony W. Montgomery, who was 17 at the time of the incident, is accused of firing the fatal shots. Now 18, he is charged with delinquency counts of murder and felonious assault and is scheduled for a May 12 hearing in Juvenile Court to determine whether his case will be transferred to adult court.

Prosecutors agreed to keep Sutton’s case in Juvenile Court in exchange for his admission to a delinquency charge.

Judge Terri Jamison placed him on probation for one year and said she will commit him to the Department of Youth Services for two years if he violates probation. The two-year suspended sentence is for the drive-by shooting and two unrelated delinquency cases.

“You are not the person who pulled the trigger, but by being there, you put yourself in the same position as the person who did,” the judge told Sutton.

He will serve his probation in Hamilton County, where he will live with his mother, Jamison ruled.

One adult also admitted to a role in the shooting. Tylor D. Dodson, 19, pleaded guilty last year to obstructing justice and improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle. He is scheduled for sentencing on May 19.