House arrest for Dayton shooter’s friend hits snag
DAYTON — A longtime friend of the Dayton shooter who authorities say bought him body armor and helped assemble the gun used in the massacre will remain in jail on a charge unrelated to the shooting.
Authorities said there’s no indication that Ethan Kollie knew his friend was planning a mass shooting, but they did accuse him of lying on a federal firearms form while buying a pistol not used in the shooting.
A U.S. magistrate judge on Wednesday continued a detention hearing for Kollie until Thursday after all sides could not agree on conditions for his release. The decision came after a federal prosecutor had agreed to a recommendation for house arrest with electronic monitoring and a number of other Kollie Betts conditions, but the magistrate balked.
“The allegations in the criminal complaint are very, very serious,” said Magistrate Judge Michael J. Newman, who also voiced concerns about drug use and a possible mental-health issue he wouldn’t elaborate on.
“I think this case merits detention, quite frankly,” Newman said.
Defense attorney Nick Gounaris said the charges that Kollie was arrested on “involved a firearm not used in any violent offenses.”
Prosecutors said Kollie, a Kettering resident, first spoke with investigators just hours after Connor Betts opened fire in a popular entertainment district, killing his sister and eight others and wounding 17 on Aug. 4.
Betts’ sister, Megan, was one of the first people shot, but it’s not known whether she was a target.
The siblings’ parents plan private memorial services, according to obituaries posted by the Conner & Koch Funeral Home in their hometown, Bellbrook. The obituary for Connor Betts, which was removed from Sabrina Herman, 41, of Dayton, points out to sister Tara Luikart of Washington Court House a feature of a makeshift memorial to victims of this month’s shooting outside Dayton’s Ned Peppers bar on Wednesday.
the funeral home’s website Wednesday, said he loved music and had been working as a grill cook and studying at Sinclair Community College.
His sister’s obituary described her as a “loving, intelligent and bright young woman” and said she was to graduate from Wright State
University in December with an earth science degree. It also said she hoped to work for NASA on exploring the possibility of life on other planets.
Kollie told investigators that he helped Connor Betts assemble the Ar-15-style weapon about 10 weeks ago, federal agents said in a court document. He also told them he bought the body armor, a 100-round magazine and a key part of the gun used in the attack and kept the gear at his apartment so that Betts’ parents would not find it, according to the court filing.
Prosecutors charged Kollie with lying about not using marijuana when he filled out federal firearms forms in the purchase of a pistol that federal agents found in his apartment.
Possessing a firearm as an unlawful user of a controlled substance is a federal crime punishable by 10 years in prison. Making a false statement regarding firearms carries a potential maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Federal authorities had filed a motion to keep him jailed without bond, saying he was a flight risk and a risk to the community.
FBI agents who obtained a warrant to search the apartment said they found two pistols, what appeared to be psychedelic mushrooms, and a device used for smoking marijuana. An FBI affidavit states that Kollie said he has smoked marijuana daily since age 14.