Ohio teen who shot uncle in rolling I-70 fracas gets nine years in prison

Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Markus Yeanay

An Ohio teenager who -- as the Putnam County prosecutor surmised -- made the fatal mistake of “bringing a gun to a fist fight,” was sentenced Monday to nine years in the Indiana Department of Correction.

In a plea agreement Aug. 30, Markus S. Yeanay, 18, Columbus, entered a guilty plea to a Level 3 felony charge of aggravated battery causing death in the fatal May 8 shooting of his 33-year-old uncle, Mario Edwards, also of Columbus.

A Level 3 felony carries a sentencing range of 3-16 years in prison with an advisory sentence of nine years.

Monday afternoon, Judge Denny Bridges imposed sentence after hearing testimony from Yeanay’s mother, father and the estranged wife of the victim, all of whom painted a picture of Edwards as an alcoholic who would become “very violent” when he was drinking.

By all accounts, Yeanay and Edwards had been arguing and fighting in the backseat of their rented minivan as it rolled westbound into Putnam County en route to Missouri. After enduring both reported physical and mental abuse at the hands and mouth of his uncle, Yeanay reached under the rear seat, pulled out a .38 caliber handgun and fired three shots, two hitting and fatally wounding Edwards.

“Growing up I had two uncles who used to love to beat the tar out of me,” Judge Bridges told the defendant before pronouncing sentence. “But I never wanted to shoot one of them. I’m not sure how you got there.”

Acknowledging that Edwards -- who was intoxicated at the time with an autopsy revealing a .22 percent blood-alcohol content (almost three times the legal limit of .08) -- “probably did start the chain of events” that led to the fatal shooting, Judge Bridges added that “nobody likes to be anybody’s punching bag, I understand that.”

But the judge ruled that aggravating circumstances -- a criminal history as a juvenile, the fact the victim was unarmed, that others might have been injured in the incident, the defendant fled the scene and possessed cocaine -- outweighed the mitigators such as Yeanay’s youth, that he has taken responsibility for what happened and his belief he could have a “peaceful” relationship with his uncle.

Defense attorney Joel Wieneke asked the judge to consider a six-year sentence, noting that Yeanay would exit the DOC on parole and “take a very valuable lesson” with him for the rest of his life.

Prosecutor Tim Bookwalter lobbied for 12 years for Yeanay, closing his statement by saying, “Bottom line, he brought a gun to a fist fight.”

In the end, Judge Bridges went with the nine-year sentence as recommended by the probation officer in the presentence report.

Yeanay originally was charged with voluntary manslaughter, a Level 2 felony; possession of cocaine, a Level 6 felony; and carrying a handgun without a license, a Class A misdemeanor. Those charges were all dismissed via the plea agreement reached with the Prosecutor’s Office.

Had the Ohio teenager been convicted of voluntary manslaughter, he could have been sentenced to 10-30 years in prison.

Prosecutor Bookwalter, taking note of the tempers, drugs, alcohol and the handgun involved, called the incident “a rolling microcosm of urban America that rolled through our community.”

According to court documents, disrespect emerged as the motive behind the fatal shooting with Yeanay becoming so infuriated by arguing and fighting with his uncle that he believed he had no recourse but to shoot him.

The driver, Stefon R. Woods, 21, also of Columbus, told investigators the two men had been “punching and yelling at each other” off and on from the time the group had left Ohio earlier that day.

Woods, who was not called to testify at Monday’s sentencing hearing, is in the Putnam County Jail on $20,000 cash bond facing charges of aiding a criminal and possession of cocaine.

At one point during the rolling argument, Yeanay reportedly told Edwards “he would kill him,” court records state.

However, the altercation seemed to subside until the 2016 Kia Sedona reached the outskirts of Cloverdale at about 10 p.m. May 8. It was then Woods said he heard three gunshots and realized Edwards had been shot.

During his infamous courtroom outburst last May, Yeanay yelled that he had been fighting for his life. However, there is no indication in the police report or probable cause affidavit that the victim had any kind of weapon.

While Edwards was struck by two bullets, another round shattered a rear window of the vehicle. Yeanay tossed the gun out through the broken glass. The gun has never been recovered.

During the hearing Monday, Bookwalter said that the loaded weapon cast aside somewhere along westbound I-70 remains another cause for concern and could end up hurting someone else.

Yeanay, during his testimony, said his uncle was “more violent than mouthy” and liked “putting his hands on people” to get the upper hand.

Giving Edwards more credit than the others who testified, Yeanay admitted having “an all-right relationship” with the man he shot, adding that “he wasn’t the best person to be around” when he had been drinking. And reportedly Edwards consumed two 20-once beers in the vehicle and had allegedly been drinking before the group ever left Ohio.

The tipping point in the incident may have come when Edwards ordered Yeanay to “bow down,” a suggestion the teenager took as a sign of disrespect.

The altercation, Yeanay has said, was both verbal and physical and reached a point where he “could no longer take Mario hitting him,” and pulled a gun out from beneath the rear seat and fired at his uncle from across the backseat.

After that fatal decision, the drama made its way to Putnam County Hospital with the wounded Edwards and his mother being dropped off at the emergency room entrance and Woods driving away with Yeanay in the rental car.

Edwards succumbed to his wounds a short time later, while Woods and Yeanay were arrested at about 2 a.m. in the Greencastle Walmart store parking lot.

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