Jury gets case of teen’s fatal 2016 shooting
Kettering man accused accused of murdering fellow student in fight.
Closing arguments were held Friday in the trial of a teenager accused of murdering a Fairmont High School student in 2016, and the jury began its deliberations.
Kylen Gregory, 18, is facing two counts of murder, five counts of felonious assault and one count of discharging a firearm at or near a prohibited premise in the death of Ronnie Bowers, a fellow Fairmont High School student, on Sept. 4, 2016.
Gregory testified Thursday that the shot he fired toward the car in which Bowers was sitting was the first he ever fired. He also said he was aiming at the trunk.
Prosecutor Lynda Dodd told the jury Friday not to believe Gregory’s testimony that he wanted to send a message with that shot.
“He could have shot into the ground. He could have shot it in the air,” she said. “If this is a message to scare, there’s no reason to load it with a bullet.”
Dodd said Gregory admitted that he stepped out of the car, pointed a loaded gun at Bowers’ car and fired it.
“That’s not reckless. That’s knowing,” she said.
Gregory’s attorney, Jon Paul Rion, told the jury that Gregory did not intend to shoot Bowers.
“Kylen Gregory had no emotional anger toward anyone,” Rion said. “This really wasn’t his fight.”
Rion said, “This was supposed to be a fist fight at best.”
“It was only one shot — not six shots into the car ... he just wasn’t thinking,” Rion added.
Friday was the fifth day of Gregory’s trial, which comes more than two years after the incident that happened near AlterFest in Kettering. Both Gregory and Bowers were 16 when the incident happened, and the case against Gregory was transferred from juvenile to common pleas court in the summer of 2017.
Witnesses testified this week the dispute that led to the shooting raised itself at AlterFest earlier in the night and involved friends of Bowers and Gregory.
Cameron Wilson, a passenger in Bowers’ car, and Jerry Tanner got into a confrontation at the festival, prompting Bowers’ group to leave the event to avoid trouble, witnesses and attorneys said.
In the fall of 2016, Tanner, now 19, was one of two juveniles who pleaded guilty to lesser charges.
Bowers, Wilson and two girls they were with walked back to Willowdale Avenue, where Bowers had parked for AlterFest. The group with Gregory and Tanner — in a car driven by Miles Heizer — tracked the victim’s group to Willowdale and partially blocked them in a driveway as Bowers tried to flee, witnesses said.
After members of Gregory’s group surrounded Bowers’ car, he was able to back out of the driveway and pull away before Gregory fired the gun, witnesses and attorneys said. Contact this reporter at 937225-2166 or email Nick.Blizzard@ coxinc.com.