Watkins faces life with parole possible in 18 years
Marquevous E. Watkins, 22, who has been incarcerated since Nov. 28 in the Logan County Jail, appeared Monday in Logan County Common Pleas Court and entered a guilty plea to murder with the specification he used a gun to kill Jeffrey Brentlinger on Nov. 24. (EXAMINER PHOTO | JOELE. MAST)
One of five people charged in Jeffrey Brentlinger’s slaying admitted Monday that he fired the fatal shot.
Marquevous E. Watkins, 21, entered a plea of guilty to murder with the specification he used a gun and faces a life sentence in prison.
Logan County Common Pleas Assigned Judge Mark S. O’Connor accepted the plea and will sentence the Lima man at 1:45 p.m. May 15.
In exchange for his plea, the Logan County Prosecutor’s Office agreed to drop first-degree aggravated robbery and aggravated assault charges.
The defendant faces a mandatory three-year sentence for using a gun and a minimum of 15 years of the life sentence.
That means he will have to serve 18 years before his first parole hearing.
He was one of five Lima area residents who traveled to Logan County Nov. 24 on the pretense two females in the group would engage in sexual relations with the victim.
Instead, Tatianna Freeman and Jasmine D. Lewis, both 17 at the time, delayed the act, waiting on the defendant and Zachariah A. Huddleston, 22, to barge into Mr. Brentlinger’s 6498 Township Road 127, Zanesfield, home and rob him.
Unbeknownst to the girls and the men, Mr. Brentlinger had set up a laptop computer disguised as a box on a closet shelf to record his escapades. It captured the moments up to his death.
Assistant Prosecutor Dan Houston, reading the statement of facts, said the victim was shot twice, once in the upper thigh allegedly by Huddleston and once in the chest by Watkins.
Huddleston faces trial July 25 for murder, first-degree felony aggravated robbery and first-degree felony aggravated burglary.
Freeman and Lewis have proceedings pending in Logan County Family Court to try them as adults. They have been charged with complicity to murder, complicity to first-degree felony aggravated robbery and complicity to first-degree felony aggravated burglary.
Judge Kim Kellogg-Martin has ordered them to undergo forensic psychiatric evaluations at Dayton Forensic.
The Ohio Supreme Court has placed a stay on an earlier decision that eliminated automatic bind over to adult courts for juveniles when prosecutors’ cases involve murders.
If the court reverses the decision, the teens will be tried as adults without further juvenile hearings.
The driver, Alexus E. Walton, 19, has been charged with complicity to murder, complicity to first-degree felony aggravated robbery and complicity to first-degree felony aggravated burglary.
Her trial is set for Aug. 22.