Three gunshots echoed through a Barberton neighborhood, followed by a woman screaming shortly before 1:20 a.m. on April 14, 2025. Then a fourth shot rang out.
Calling 911, residents described the noises. One described a woman running house to house. Another neighbor heard pounding on her back door. When she opened the door, a woman burst through.
“She just comes running into the kitchen at me, into my arms,” Delores Plucinski recalled.
Down the road, Barberton police responded to East Paige Avenue and Third Street Northeast, where they found 25-year-old Nathan Flight of Canton unresponsive, lying on his back next to a retaining wall with multiple gunshot wounds. Soon after, police arrested Justice Oney.
Although prosecutors and defense attorneys agree that Oney, 26, of Barberton, shot and killed Flight following a dispute with his wife, they disagree about why Oney killed Flight.
Represented by attorneys Jacob Will and Marie DiCola, Oney argues he acted in self-defense. He is charged with murder, felony murder, abduction, two counts of felonious assault and associated firearm specifications that could result in additional jail time if found guilty.
Summit County Common Pleas Judge Mary Margaret Rowlands is acting as judge and jury in the bench trial.
Nathan Flight’s sister recalls driving him to Barberton
Over an hour before the woman, Oney’s wife, burst into Plucinski’s house, Flight was on the phone with Oney’s wife and could hear a man yelling, according to a recording of the call. Oney’s wife is heard asking where Oney was working and calling him a liar. Minutes later, Oney yelled at her to “drop the pepper spray.”
Sarah Flight overheard the call her brother was recording, testifying that Nathan punched the closet door and banged his head on the doorframe. An agitated and anxious Nathan wanted to go to Barberton, so Sarah took him and dropped him off at East Paige Avenue and Third Street Northeast.
“He got out of the car and walked down the street and disappeared,” Sarah testified, saying she was uneasy about the situation.
Although she left to get gas, she continued to message and call him. When he didn’t respond, she tried to find the intersection again but couldn’t. Because he never gave her an address, she didn’t know where to go until she spotted a helpful Norton police officer.
At the scene, she approached Barberton police officers and asked about her brother.
Minutes earlier, Barberton police officer Andrew Steidl found Nathan; he said Nathan was shot four times, including once to the head. Steidl also found a roughly 9-inch knife next to Nathan and moved it. He noted orange pepper spray on Nathan’s face.
Officers told Sarah that her brother was shot and taken to the hospital. Her family learned later that night that Nathan had died from his injuries, Sarah recalled.
Justice Oney argues self-defense
Prosecutors explained in their opening statement that Oney and his wife had a tumultuous relationship. His wife, the defense said, struggled with severe depression and suicidal ideation. Nathan struggled with suicidal and homicidal thoughts.
Nathan first met Oney’s wife in October 2024 when they were both in a mental health treatment facility, DiCola said. The two developed a romantic relationship, in which she often visited Nathan at the house he shared with Sarah in Canton.
When Oney’s argument with his wife ended on April 14, she left the house. DiCola said Oney, concerned about her mental health, searched for her.
When he found her, she was with Nathan near the retaining wall at East Paige Avenue and Third Street Northeast. Nathan, DiCola said, moved toward Oney with a knife. Fearing for his life, Oney pepper-sprayed Nathan, but his glasses protected his eyes.
That’s when Oney drew his firearm and shot four times, fatally striking Nathan.
Following the shooting, Oney’s wife fled the scene and ran to nearby homes, eventually entering Plucinski’s house.
The trial will continue at 9 a.m. July 31.
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 trial of Justice Oney begins in shooting death of Canton man
Reporting by Bryce Buyakie, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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By Bryce Buyakie, Akron Beacon Journal | USA TODAY Network
