West Side man sentenced to 23 years
Tirhas Zerihun said more than one life was lost when her older brother was fatally shot near a Grove City motel last year.
The tragedy left her family in ruins.
“When you take someone’s life, you destroy everyone else’s,” the 43-year-old Near East Side woman said Friday in a Franklin County courtroom, facing the man who pleaded guilty to the killing.
“I won’t forget, but I do forgive you.”
Domineek L. Smith, 23, of Midland Avenue on the West Side, was sentenced Friday morning to 23 years to life in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated murder with a gun specification. As part of a plea agreement, six other charges in the case were dismissed, as well as two unrelated, pending cases against Smith.
The sentence imposed by Common Pleas Judge Michael J. Holbrook was recommended by both the prosecuting and defense attorneys.
The maximum sentence would have been life in prison without parole.
Smith shot Temesgen Zerihun, 44, in his car Sept. 28, 2016, outside the now-closed Star City Inn & Suites, 3131 Broadway, prosecutors said. He was found unresponsive and later died at OhioHealth Grant Medical Center.
The homicide stemmed from an attempted robbery, Assistant Prosecutor Jack Wong said.
Smith became angry after he learned his sister had arranged to go on a date with Zerihun and wanted to “teach him a lesson,” Wong said. Smith found him in the motel parking lot where he had planned to meet Smith’s sister and demanded money from him.
When he refused, Smith shot him.
A surveillance camera captured some of the aftermath, Wong said.
A tearful Smith apologized to the victim’s sister and a handful of his family members who attended Friday’s sentencing. He said he “lost control” because he had been using Xanax and other drugs before the shooting happened.
“I want you to know, deep down inside, I really am sorry,” he said.
Tirhas Zerihun said her brother was a kind, caring person. He quit his job to care for their bed-ridden mother after she suffered a stroke in 2015 in order to keep her out of a nursing home.
She said she was satisfied with Smith’s sentence.
“I just want to get this over with,” she said. “I want closure in my life.”