Franklin County Prosecutor secures guilty plea for the 2022 shooting death of Devin Bannister

Posted on 8/23/2024

Defendant: Ameir Trent

The Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office secured a guilty plea August 21 from Ameir Trent, 22, for the killing of Devin Bannister, 15, in July 2022. Trent pleaded guilty to reckless homicide and improperly discharging a firearm into a habitation, each with 3-year firearm specification, as well as to felonious assault. Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Judge Julie Lynch immediately sentenced Trent to 15 to 17 years in prison, imposing the maximum sentence possible for the firearm specifications and the reckless homicide charge.

Emalea Helisek and Jason Manning prosecuted the case for the prosecutor’s office.

On July 18, 2022, Columbus Division of Police officers were called to a shooting scene on Zebulon Avenue in North Linden, where Trent and four juveniles, including Bannister, shot more than 40 rounds into a residence with four people present. Trent and the juveniles were leaving the scene in a car when Trent, believing his firearm to be empty, fired an additional shot, which went through the front passenger seat and struck Bannister. They dropped off Bannister at Riverside Hospital and fled the scene. Bannister later died from the gunshot wound.