Suspect pleads guilty to shooting

Stephon Swain was accused of a New Year’s Day murder.

DAYTON — Stephon Swain, who is accused of shooting two men on New Year’s Day 2011, killing one of them, pleaded no contest Monday to charges related to those shootings.

Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Gregory F. Singer convicted Swain of murder and felonious assault, the two charges Swain pleaded to, plus the firearm specifications attached to both counts. Singer set sentencing for March 20.

The day after the shootings, Swain’s grandmother was shot to death, apparently in retaliation for the death of Jamycol Harris and the shooting of Derek Hawkins, according to police.

Swain’s trial was to start Monday morning. Under the plea agreement, Swain will serve 18 years to life in prison. He also pleaded no contest to heroin possession in an unrelated case and admitted a probation violation in another firearms case. All other charges were dismissed.

Harris, 19, was shot multiple times outside 3708 Evansville Ave., in Harrison Twp. Swain lived at the address, which was rented to his mother, Gwen Swain. Hawkins was shot at the same location.

Swain’s grandmother, Jessie L. Swain, was shot and killed Jan. 2 when 23 bullets ripped through her two-story frame house at 110 S. Ardmore Ave.

The U.S. Marshals-led Southern Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team received information on Swain’s whereabouts and arrested him Jan. 11, 2011 at 1230 Beaulieu Court in Dayton.

According to court records, Swain was sentenced in November 2010 to five years of community control for his guilty plea to a felony charge of having a loaded weapon in his car.

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