FAIRFIELD TOWNSHIP, Ohio — A man has pleaded guilty to charges tied to the 2018 murder of 16-year-old Sydney Garcia-Tovar.
Jordan Spain was arrested in 2022 and indicted by a grand jury in March. He originally faced one count of murder and two counts of felonious assault. Court documents show he pleaded guilty to one count of involuntary manslaughter.
The documents say prosecutors agreed to merge the felonious assault charges into the manslaughter charge "as they are allied offenses."
Though he won't be sentenced until November 1, Spain could face a maximum penalty of 11 years in prison.
According to police, Spain was just 14 years old at the time of the shooting.
In April 2021, 22-year-old Markeylnd Townsend was also charged with murder and felonious assault for his involvementin Garcia-Tovar's death. His case is still pending in court.
According to Fairfield Township police, Garcia-Tovar was in the wrong place at the wrong time on July 23, 2018, when bullets began flying. Fairfield Township police sergeant Brandon McCroskey said Garcia-Tovar was with a group of people outside the Tyler's Creek apartments on Wildbranch Road that day.
As she was leaving, McCroskey said bullets hit Garcia-Tovar's car, striking her in the back of the head and hitting a man in her passenger seat; the man survived, but Garcia-Tovar died in the hospital the next day.
“Sydney did not deserve to die from being there and being involved in that situation,” McCroskey said after Garcia-Tovar's murder. “She was a victim. It is a tragedy all the way around.”
Garcia-Tovar’s family said she was an ROTC cadet at Hamilton High School who had hopes of one day becoming a Marine.
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