Talbert Lawreence Grooms Jr., 41, pleaded guilty to an indicted count of having weapons while under disability and to one count of involuntary manslaughter with a three-year firearm specification charged via a bill of information, according to plea documents filed in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Wednesday.
According to court documents, Grooms agreed to a sentence of 17 to 22 and a half years in prison, to be served in full without judicial release. He also agreed to forfeit the 9mm firearm used.
Six other charges were dismissed, including two counts of murder and two of felonious assault.
Grooms is currently in the Montgomery County Jail and is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 14.
The shooting
Grooms was accused of shooting and killing Jordan Ashe, 30, on Nov. 19, 2024.
Just after 1 a.m., Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputies responded to Palms Lounge at 4950 Old Barn Road, according to an affidavit filed in Vandalia Municipal Court.
Deputies found Ashe on the back patio with gunshot wounds to his chest and right arm. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Witnesses said that Ashe had been in a physical confrontation with a patron, later identified as Grooms, while escorting him out of the rear patio exit.
Surveillance video and witnesses showed that Grooms went back to the bar with a firearm, the affidavit said.
Ashe tried to tackle Grooms, who fired two or three shots that hit the guard, investigators said. Another bar employee used pepper spray on Grooms, and a bar manager disarmed him before Grooms fled in his car, according to the affidavit. He reportedly dropped his cellphone during the struggle.
The crash
While crews were at the bar, a crash was reported less than a mile away at North Main Street and Shiloh Springs Road with a vehicle that matched the description of the shooter’s vehicle, according to Maj. Jeremy Roy.
The car flipped in the crash and was heavily damaged, but the driver was able to get out and flee on foot. Deputies and K9 units tried unsuccessfully to track him, but witnesses gave a description that matched Grooms, the affidavit said.
“We were then able to verify through the registration of the vehicle and BMV photos of the suspect that it matched the description of what everybody was giving us at the homicide scene and crash scene,” Roy said.
Detectives went to Grooms’ house in Clayton to wait for a search warrant, and while there he came home with visible injuries consistent with a crash, Roy said.
More investigation
Court records said that Grooms admitted to being at the Palms Lounge but denied having a gun or being in a confrontation. He said that he had lost his cellphone in the crash.
However, law enforcement said that in Grooms’ house, they found a case for a 9mm pistol with the same serial number as the one taken at the bar and clothes that matched the ones the shooter wore in surveillance footage. They also pinged Grooms’ phone, which showed that it remained at the bar.
Staff writers Jen Balduf and Kristen Spicker contributed to this story.
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