CINCINNATI — A judge has sentenced Carl Godfrey to two life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Godfrey was convicted by a jury on February 1 for his part in a series of murders in the winter of 2021.
Godfrey is just one of four who were allegedly involved in multiple murder-for-hire plots that took the lives of four people between Jan. 31 and Feb. 18 in 2021. Prosecutors said Godfrey was the mastermind behind at least one shooting.
Jason Gray, Mario Gordon and a juvenile who was just 14 years old at the time of the murders are also charged in the killings and are all currently awaiting trial.
Godfrey and Gray, prosecutors said, were hired by an unidentified person to murder Jeremiah Campbell in Avondale on Jan. 31. On Feb. 16, he was once again hired to kill a specific target. Officials claim Godfrey sent Gray, Gordon and the teen to carry out the murder. Deontay Otis, a man prosecutors say was not the intended target, was killed.
Otis' girlfriend, who was with him at the time of the shooting, described in court the moment they were ambushed. She said Otis was driving and she was in the passenger seat when multiple shots were fired at their car.
"He starts saying, he starts saying 'I'm hit, I'm shot, I'm dead,'" said Maliaya Freeman, who was also shot.
The intended target, prosecutors said, was sitting in the backseat behind Otis. Before the shooting, Freeman said the intended target was on the phone with someone she knew as "C.J." for several minutes. She identified "C.J." as Godfrey.
Between those shootings, assistant prosecutor Linda Scott said the teen involved in Otis' death shot and killed Terrance North as an "audition" for getting paid to kill people. The teen and Godfrey then killed Donnell Steele, who was not a specific target, in Millvale on Feb. 18.
"Donnell Steele was standing in the middle of the street near his car when the bullets hit him directly in the head," said Allison Oswall, assistant Hamilton County prosecuting attorney. "He fell face first to the ground — a fact that someone would only know if they were there when it happened, a fact that Godfrey was bragging about on his cell phone moments after Mr. Steele was murdered."
Godfrey was originally charged with four counts of aggravated murder and seven counts of murder, as well as multiple counts of felonious assault, aggravated robbery and having weapons under disability. He was found guilty of two counts of aggravated murder, four counts of murder, two counts of weapons under disability and eight counts of felonious assault.
The other people involved in the shootings have also been charged. Incarcerated while he awaits his own trial, Gordon testified against Godfrey during the trial. The teen will be prosecuted as an adult, a juvenile court judge ruled in 2023.
