Editor’s note: This story contains discussion about suicide. If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
In the seconds after he pepper-sprayed Nathan Flight on April 14, 2025, Justice Oney drew his firearm, aimed it at Flight and opened fire. Three gunshots echoed through the Barberton neighborhood. Seconds later, a fourth rang out.
Attorneys agree that all of this happened, but two competing narratives have emerged in Oney’s murder trial theorizing why Oney pulled the trigger. He either acted in self-defense or murdered Flight, who was entangled in a physical and romantic relationship with Oney’s wife.
Oney and his wife testified during Oney’s murder trial, in which he is accused of killing Flight. He is charged with murder, felony murder, abduction, two counts of felonious assault and firearm specifications.
Attorneys Jacob Will and Marie DiCola represent Oney. Summit County Common Pleas Judge Mary Margaret Rowlands is acting as judge and jury in the bench trial.
What led up to the shooting?
Just before the shooting, Oney and his wife recorded themselves arguing and yelling at each other. The verbal altercation showed the two screaming at each other and struggling over pepper spray his wife had grabbed. Oney said the argument was over their separation.
The heated argument ended minutes after Oney’s wife left their shared house in Barberton. Security footage from inside their home showed Oney repeatedly exiting and re-entering the home. He said he was making a car ready for her planned stay at her mother’s house.
At roughly the same time, Flight’s sister drove Flight to Barberton and dropped him off at East Paige Avenue and Third Street Northeast in Barberton, near Oney’s house. Oney’s wife met up with Flight; they walked down the street to that intersection and sat next to a retaining wall.
At around 1:25 a.m., Oney parked his vehicle near the two individuals. By his telling, Oney was concerned for his wife’s mental health and didn’t know she was with Flight. Prosecutors disagreed.
Murder or self-defense? Judge must decide
Oney’s wife testified on Aug. 3 that Flight stood up when Oney exited his vehicle and pepper-sprayed them and walked forward. Flight backed away from Oney with his hands up, saying, “You don’t have to do this.”
The first three shots struck Flight, sending him to the ground, Oney’s wife testified. Oney then shot Flight in the head.
“He was backing up trying to retreat,” she said of Flight, testifying that she didn’t know if Flight had a knife at the time.
But Oney testified on Aug. 4 that Flight – brandishing a knife – moved to attack him when he exited his vehicle. Oney backed away and pepper-sprayed Flight and his knife, which detectives later found at the scene.
Flight covered his face and continued toward Oney, who testified that Flight had his arm raised as if to lunge with the knife. Oney, still backing up, fired three times. Oney stumbled and shot a fourth time.
“I fired until he went down,” Oney said. “Until the very last shot, he was still advancing.”
Summit County assistant prosecutor Zachary Neumann said Flight’s body was found 32 feet away from a knife sheath, which is roughly where Flight was positioned when Oney arrived at the scene.
Pulling out a tape measure, Neumann walked across the courtroom and asked if Oney chased him 32 feet away. Oney replied, saying his vehicle may have been parked farther up the road, closer to where Flight’s body was found.
Mental health issues take center stage
One week before the fatal shooting, Oney’s wife’s step-grandfather was sentenced to life in prison on counts of rape and gross sexual imposition. She was a victim in that case, which she said retraumatized her and caused her mental health to deteriorate.
Throughout their relationship, Oney said he supported his wife. He repeatedly called 911 for her mental health crises.
Months earlier in 2024, with the sexual abuse case pending, she met Flight in a mental health program. She struggled with suicidal ideation; Flight struggled with suicidal and homicidal ideation, she said. The two quickly developed an emotional and physical relationship.
She kept the relationship secret from Oney, who she said was controlling. She told Oney that Flight was gay and only a friend. During this time, Flight had notes on his phone that described how he could kill Oney, Will said, showing the notes to the lead detective.
Oney met Flight three times, Will said. First, when Flight allegedly broke into their house. Next, several days before the fatal shooting, when Oney and his wife picked him up from a mental health facility. The third meeting was the fatal shooting.
Despite this, Oney said he never knew his wife was cheating on him but noted she had cheated in the past. He learned about her affair with Flight after the fatal shooting when his attorneys told him in jail.
Bryce Buyakie is an Akron-based reporter who covers the courts and public safety for the Beacon Journal. He can be reached by email at bbuyakie@gannett.com or on X @bryce_buyakie.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Murder or self-defense? Barberton man on trial in death of Nathan Flight
Reporting by Bryce Buyakie, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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By Bryce Buyakie, Akron Beacon Journal | USA TODAY Network
