An Ohio ex-convict who went to prison for beating a 17-year-old to death in 2022 was arrested last week after police accused him of killing a bystander during a shootout in Akron.
The U.S Marshals Service and Akron police said they took Deshawn Stafford, 24, into custody on murder charges Thursday after he was linked to the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Timothy Hutchinson.
Authorities said Mr. Hutchinson was killed in the hail of bullets exchanged between Mr. Stafford and another man around midnight Oct. 5.
“Timothy Hutchinson is just a terrible tragedy that he lost his life when he wasn’t involved in anything at all and really was just an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire of these two individuals,” Akron Police Lt. Michael Murphy said.
Mr. Stafford also faces assault, gun and drug-related charges in connection to the deadly shooting.
The suspect previously spent 18 months behind bars after he was convicted in the June 2022 killing of Ethan Liming.
Ethan was with a group of people who fired a toy pellet gun at another group playing basketball outside of the I Promise School, an Akron public school largely supported by NBA star LeBron James.
Police said the people on the basketball court ran to confront the group firing the toy gun and a fight broke out.
During the scrum, police said Mr. Stafford knocked Ethan to the ground with a punch. The Summit County Medical Examiner said Ethan’s head hitting against the pavement caused his death.
A jury found Deshawn Stafford and his younger brother, Tyler, guilty of assault in the incident, but Mr. Stafford was acquitted of the most serious charge of involuntary manslaughter.
After completing his sentence, Mr. Stafford was interviewed by A&E about the case for the true crime show “Accused: Did I Do It?”
Mr. Stafford expressed remorse about Ethan’s death in the documentary, which aired in April.
“I wish I could take everything back,” the ex-convict said. “I wish I could have taken the punch back. I still wish he was alive. We all was still young and everybody wants to grow old one day and everybody wants to experience life, and he didn’t get to experience that.”
About a week before Timothy Hutchinson was fatally shot, court records showed Mr. Stafford was sentenced to probation on drug charges.
Meanwhile, his brother Tyler was sentenced to 15 to 19 years in prison for felony assault and other crimes in two separate cases.
