Kettering teen’s retrial set in student’s 2016 fatal shooting
Gregory returns to court May 13 for Bowers’ killing.
A date has been set in the retrial of a Kettering teen convicted as an adult last year in the 2016 fatal shooting of a Fairmont High School student.
Court documents show Kylen Gregory, 18, on May 13 will again face felonious assault charges in the killing of Ronnie Bowers before the case returns to juvenile court, where he could face a lighter sentence.
However, attorneys for Gregory, who was convicted of lesser charges in his murder trial last year, are seeking to have those felonious assault counts dismissed.
A jury in November found Gregory guilty of two counts of reckless homicide and one count of discharging a firearm. The jury deadlocked on five felonious assault charges in what was Kettering’s first gun-related homicide since 2007.
Gregory and Bowers were both 16 at the time of the shooting, and the defendant’s case was initially heard in juvenile court before a 2017 mandatory transfer to adult court.
Gregory was indicted on — and pleaded not guilty to — two counts of murder, five counts of felonious assault and the firearms charge.
Because Gregory was convicted of charges that did not require mandatory transfers to adult court, the case will return to juvenile court, Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Dennis Langer has ruled. In that court, Gregory could face a lighter sentence, officials have said.
After a retrial on the remaining felonious assault counts, Gregory would face sentencing in adult court on all charges for which he has been convicted — with that punishment being stayed — while the case goes back to juvenile court, Langer has said. Meanwhile, Gregory’s attorneys want all five felonious assault counts dismissed.
“The jury’s finding of guilt as to the reckless homicide charge amounted to a de facto acquittal on the felonious assault charges,” according to a motion filed by defense attorney Ben Swift.
Gregory testified he fired a shot a Bowers’ car as the victim and three others sought to flee a dispute on Willowdale Avenue the night of Sept. 4. The shot, witnesses said, wounded Bowers in the head and later caused his death.
“There was one projectile fired, therefore there could only be animus,” the motion filed by Swift states. “Therefore, any retrial on the felonious assault charges in which a jury has already found Kylen guilty, recklessness would necessarily result in an inconsistent verdict and result in double jeopardy.”
Gregory has been in juvenile detention since being apprehended just hours after the shooting.