Man who killed, robbed as juvenile gets 15 years

Michael L. Meredith was three days shy of his 18th birthday when he fatally shot a man last fall during a failed drug deal outside a West Side apartment complex.

He was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in adult prison after pleading guilty to the slaying and an unrelated armed robbery.

Meredith, of South Terrace Avenue on the West Side, originally was charged in Franklin County Juvenile Court, but the case was transferred to adult court last week after he admitted that prosecutors had enough evidence to show probable cause that he committed the crimes.

Common Pleas Judge Jenifer French imposed the sentence, which was recommended by prosecuting and defense attorneys as part of a plea agreement. Meredith waived his right to have a grand jury consider the case and pleaded guilty to what’s known as a bill of information.

He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter with a gun specification for the Oct. 23, 2017, death of 24-year-old Jared M. Bentley and aggravated robbery with a gun specification for the Oct. 19, 2017, pistolwhipping of two women at a Northeast Side motel.

Meredith supplied cocaine for what was supposed to be a drug sale to Bentley in the parking lot of an apartment complex on Bay Circle Drive, Assistant Prosecutor Zachary Horton said. When Bentley began driving away from the meeting after a misunderstanding, Meredith pulled a handgun and began firing at the vehicle. One of the shots struck Bentley in the neck, Horton said.

In the earlier incident, Meredith went to a room at the Budget Inn in the 3900 block of Westerville Road and confronted three female occupants, striking two in the head with a handgun before taking $800 from one of the victims, Horton said.

Bentley’s grandmother told the judge that she didn’t want her grandson, who had a 1-year-old daughter, remembered for how he died.

“Jared was a good person who made some stupid mistakes,” Jeanine Bentley said.

Meredith apologized to the victim’s family during the hearing.

“If I was there again today, none of this would be happening,” he said.