Driver in I-70 fatal shooting gets one-year jail sentence

The Putnam County legal system closed the book Friday on one of the stranger criminal cases in recent memory with the sentencing of a 21-year-old Ohio man.

Stefon R. Woods, the driver of a westbound vehicle on Interstate 70 in which his nephew fatally wounded his brother (the shooter's uncle) last spring, went before Judge Denny Bridges in Putnam Superior Court for change of plea and sentencing hearing.

Stefon Woods

In a plea agreement with the Putnam Prosecutor's Office, Woods pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine, a Level 6 felony, while the state dismissed a charge of assisting a criminal, a Level 5 felony.

Bridges accepted the guilty plea, sentencing Woods to one year in the Putnam County Jail, time all executed, for his part in the May 8 incident. A Level 6 felony is punishable by 6-30 months in jail.

With Woods having served 172 actual days in jail thus far, he will have eight days remaining on his sentence before being released and returning home to Ohio to continue on probation there.

The charge of assisting a criminal that was dismissed sprang from Woods driving off with shooter Markus S. Yeanay, 18, Columbus, Ohio, in tow after dropping off the victim, Mario Edwards, 33, also of Columbus, at Putnam County Hospital. Edwards died of his wounds a short time later.

Earlier this month, Yeanay entered a guilty plea to a Level 3 felony charge of aggravated battery causing death in the fatal shooting of his uncle. He received a nine-year sentence, as recommended by the probation officer in the presentence report.

Woods was not called to testify during the sentencing hearing on Yeanay.

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

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

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

The altercation reached a point where Yeanay said he "could no longer take Mario hitting him," and pulled out the gun and fired at his uncle from across the backseat.

Following that fatal decision, the drama made its way to PCH with the wounded Edwards and his mother being dropped off at the emergency room entrance as Woods drove off with Yeanay.

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