Ohio Man Who ‘Executed’ 14-Year-Old Boy Who ‘Knew Too Much’ Sentenced to Life Without Parole
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A 23-year-old Ohio man has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for the execution-style murder of a 14-year-old boy, a killing prosecutors say was motivated by fear that the teen “knew too much” about his criminal activities.
Conviction and Sentencing
According to Franklin County court records, Jaheym Cheeks, of Mansfield, was convicted on September 17 of aggravated murder, murder, and kidnapping in the March 5, 2022 killing of Brylan Butcher, a 14-year-old runaway from a youth treatment facility.
On Friday, Judge Kim Brown of the Franklin County Common Pleas Court sentenced Cheeks to life in prison without the possibility of parole, calling the crime “a deliberate and cold-blooded act of execution.”
Crime Captured on Surveillance Video
Prosecutors said Cheeks lured Butcher into a stolen vehicle before driving him to an alleyway in Columbus’s Hilltop neighborhood. Surveillance footage showed the two sitting in the car together before Cheeks got out, walked to the passenger side, and shot Butcher in the head at point-blank range.
After the shooting, Cheeks was seen dragging the teen’s body between two trash cans in the alleyway before driving away.
The boy’s body was discovered the next morning by a woman scavenging through dumpsters. In a chilling 911 call, she told dispatchers, “He’s definitely dead.”
The Columbus Dispatch later confirmed that Butcher had been reported missing two weeks earlier from the Abraxas Youth Treatment Center in Shelby, about 80 miles northeast of Columbus.
Motive: “He Knew Too Much”
In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors said Cheeks killed Butcher because the teen “knew too much” about an ongoing crime spree involving stolen cars, property crimes, and acts of violence connected to Cheeks.
“Deceiving a 14-year-old boy to enter a vehicle and driving him in the middle of the night out of town to execute him, before putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger, is, by itself, sufficient to warrant life in prison,” the memo stated.
Prosecutors also revealed that Cheeks bragged about the killing, telling associates afterward that he would “sleep fine.”
“To tell people that he would sleep ‘fine’ is a glimpse into the mind of one who cannot conform to the norms of society,” the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office wrote.
Victim’s Background
Before his death, Butcher had spent time in foster care in Mansfield and had repeatedly run away from the youth facility where he was living. He was last reported missing on February 20, 2022, just two weeks before the murder.
During the trial, prosecutors acknowledged Cheeks’ own difficult upbringing but argued that it did not excuse the premeditated killing of a child.
Cheeks will now spend the rest of his life in prison, with no possibility of parole, for what prosecutors called one of the most heartless crimes in Franklin County’s recent history. For more U.S. crime and justice updates, follow ChicagoMusicGuide.com.