Editor’s note: This story has been updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.
When 35-year-old Asiah Slone’s body was discovered weeks after police launched a missing persons investigation, it was her friend, Casey Kilgore, who found the woman’s decomposing remains.
“She was rotting in a trash can,” Kilgore said through tears during Tuesday’s emotional sentencing of Brandon Davis, 46, who was convicted of orchestrating Slone’s execution-style killing.
Davis was sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 44½ years. Davis was found guilty as charged during a February jury trial in Butler County Common Pleas Judge Kelly Heile’s courtroom.
Jurors deliberated for nearly five hours before returning a guilty verdict against Davis for aggravated murder, murder, attempted murder, kidnapping and illegal firearms possession.
Prosecutors say Davis shot Slone once in the head while she slept at a house on Yankee Road in early June, then directed another man to “take her downstairs and shut her up.”
Slone moaned in agony after she was shot and Perry Hart, 59, dragged her into the basement, where he killed the woman on Davis’ orders, prosecutors said, adding that traces of her blood were found in the house’s front room and the basement.
“You’re a monster,” Kilgore told Davis in court, adding that Slone didn’t have a chance to run or defend herself because she was asleep.
While Davis didn’t fire the final shot, he handed a gun to Hart to finish the job, prosecutors said. Hart pleaded guilty earlier this month after serving as a key witness for the prosecution in Davis’ trial.
Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser recounted Davis’ statement to Hart before the killing, in which Davis asked, “Are you with me or are you against me?”
“This defendant is, after all, a stone-cold killer,” Gmoser said. He added that Davis has not accepted responsibility, only dodging and deflecting questions while on the witness stand.
Prosecutors said the killing stemmed from a falling out between Slone and Davis’ father, with whom she had been in a relationship, and items stolen from Davis. Slone was later found in a large Rumpke trash can on Centennial Avenue – near the Yankee Road house.
Davis maintained his innocence throughout the trial and at sentencing. He has repeatedly claimed the police investigation was prejudiced and described the witnesses who testified against him, including Hart, as biased and self-interested.
“I had nothing to do with the murder of Asiah Slone,” Davis said in court.
The prosecution of Davis was largely pinned on Hart’s confession, as well as statements by jailhouse informants, who told investigators that Davis confessed while at the Butler County Jail.
Davis told the judge that Hart was solely responsible for Slone’s death and lied to police about the killing multiple times. Hart is scheduled to be sentenced on March 31.
“This wasn’t no mystery,” Davis said.
While DNA evidence linked Hart to the murder weapon, there was no such direct DNA link or other physical evidence tying Davis to the crime scene. Prosecutors said that while many of the witnesses who testified against Davis were unsavory characters, their statements were reliable nonetheless.
Bradley Kraemer, Davis’ attorney, said his client plans to appeal his conviction.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: ‘With me or against me’: Man sentenced for ordering execution-style killing in Middletown
Reporting by Quinlan Bentley, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
