Holloway gets 15 years for birthday party slaying

YOUNGSTOWN

A $20 bet led to a 15-year prison sentence Thursday.

Jermaill Holloway, 24, of Clarencedale Avenue, was sentenced in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court by Judge R. Scott Krichbaum for the March 20, 2016, shooting death of Marquis Shelton, 23, at a home on Idora Avenue after the two argued over a $20 bet on a video game.

The shooting was at a birthday party for Dequalia Shelton, who was wounded in the shoulder in the burst of gunfire that killed her brother.

She told the judge Thursday her birthday will always be marred by her brother’s death.

“Every year this is something I have to live with,” she said.

Holloway pleaded guilty March 2 to a charge of voluntary manslaughter and eight counts of felonious assault.

Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa told the judge that there were several other people at the party and after Shelton and Holloway argued over the video game, Holloway was told to leave and threatened to kill everyone in the home before he went outside.

Shelton and his sister were in the doorway when gunfire broke out.

Cantalamessa said someone in the home was also firing a gun and there was an exchange of gunfire.

Read more about the case in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.