Summit County jurors found a 31-year-old Cleveland Heights man guilty on July 25 of shooting at an Akron apartment building blocks away from the county’s juvenile court.
Quynshod Taylor is the last person to be convicted in the shooting that damaged an apartment building where people lived on Pine Knolls Drive, according to a Summit County Prosecutor’s Office news release. No one was injured.
Common Pleas Court Mary Margaret Rowlands will sentence Taylor at 1 p.m. on July 31. Attorney Issa Elkhatib represents him.
Sentencing: 2 Akron men sentenced to prison for shooting into an apartment with people inside
His three co-defendants — Martaze Portis, 21, Solomon Varner, 20, and Jay’Viare Harden, 21 — previously pleaded guilty to charges in the case.
“These four defendants caused community panic and terror, and I am grateful to see all of them facing the consequences of their actions,” Summit County Prosecutor Elliot Kolkovich said in a news release. “It is critical our residents feel safe and protected in their neighborhoods. I want to thank the Akron Police Department for their work in this investigation and my assistant prosecutors for bringing these four to justice.”
How did the co-defendants plead?
Portis and Varner pleaded guilty to multiple felony weapons charges, including improperly discharging a firearm into a habitation. They were represented by attorneys Rhonda Kotnick and Thomas Locascio, respectively.
They were sentenced to 10 to 11 years in prison in February.
Harden pleaded guilty to three felony weapons charges and one count of unlawful possession of a dangerous ordnance. Represented by Job Perry, he will be sentenced at 11:30 a.m. on Aug. 13.
What happened on Pine Knolls Drive?
Prosecutors say the men walked up to an apartment building on Pine Knolls Drive in Akron in September 2023 and fired guns into the building. No one was injured, though residents reported hearing gunshots and seeing bullets come through walls.
The men then ran to a black SUV on the next street and pointed a gun at someone they saw on the way, prosecutors said.
Bryce Buyakie covers courts and public safety for the Beacon Journal. He can be reached by email at bbuyakie@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @bryce_buyakie.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Jurors find Quynshod Taylor guilty of shooting Akron apartments