Dayton man pleads guilty in murder plot involving Kettering teen

May 1—The triggerman in a 2022 murder plot to kill an 18-year-old Kettering woman who escaped when the gun jammed before flagging down a police officer has pleaded guilty.

Aaron Joseph Davis, 22, of Dayton, pleaded guilty last week in Greene County Common Pleas Court to attempted murder, aggravated robbery, felonious assault, tampering with evidence and having weapons while under disability.

He faces a maximum 47 1/2 years in prison when Judge Adolfo Tornichio sentences him June 28. However, prosecutors are requesting a prison term of 32 to 37 1/2 years, according to plea documents filed April 26.

As part of his plea, one count each of attempted murder and felonious assault were dismissed.

The woman on Sept. 12, 2022, picked up her ex-boyfriend, La'Dashiaun "Shawn" Brown, 22, in Dayton. She moved to the front passenger side, and Brown got in the driver's seat and his friends Davis and Jahmel Douglas Morgan, 24, of Beavercreek got in the back seat.

The group eventually drove down a circle driveway in the area of the 900 block of Ford Road in Xenia Twp. and got out before walking down a set of stairs to the Little Miami River, according to an affidavit filed in Xenia Municipal Court.

"At the base of the stairs, (the woman) heard a gunshot and could feel blood running down her shoulder," an affidavit stated.

The woman told detectives she saw one of Brown's friends with the gun, later identified as Davis, and tried to run away but fell.

Davis told the detective that after he shot the victim, he chased her and hit her approximately three times, including with the firearm in the head, according to court records.

"Davis stated he did not shoot (her) again because the gun jammed," court documents stated.

The woman was able to escape and a Xenia police sergeant found her near a field on Hilltop Road. She was taken to Miami Valley Hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.

Her car was found later that day in Seneca County in northern Ohio. The Ohio State Highway Patrol and Seneca County Sheriff's Office arrested Brown and booked him into the Seneca County Jail.

Davis and Morgan told a Greene County Sheriff's detective Sept. 21, 2022, they and Brown, the woman's ex-boyfriend, planned to kill the woman and they wanted to turn themselves in, according to court records.

"More specifically, Morgan admitted he, Brown and Davis made a plan to have [the woman] pick them up in her vehicle, drive to a different location and for Davis to shoot [the woman]," an affidavit read, "As part of the plan, Morgan admitted he was supposed to shoot [the woman] in the event Davis was not able to do so."

Davis said the gun was thrown off the Webster Street bridge in Dayton. Investigators found a gun in the river by the bridge and sent it for analysis to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

Brown was sentenced in November 2022 to 20 to 25 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, felonious assault, tampering with evidence and having weapons while under disability.

He is incarcerated in the Marion Correctional Institution, where he is eligible for parole in September 2042, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation & Correction.

Morgan pleaded guilty in March 2023 to conspiracy to commit aggravated murder and aggravated robbery. He later filed a motion pro se, or on one's own behalf, to withdraw his plea. The motion was rejected and his attorney withdrew from the case, court records show. He has not yet been sentenced and remains in the Greene County Jail.