Inset: Jaheym Cheeks (Office of the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney). Background: The location in Columbus, Ohio, where Cheeks murdered Brylan Butcher (Image from Google Maps).
An Ohio man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for the execution-style murder of a 14-year-old runaway boy.
On Sept. 17, Jaheym Cheeks, 23, was convicted by a jury of his peers on counts of aggravated murder, murder, and kidnapping. On Friday, the defendant was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole by Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Kim Brown.
On March 5, 2022, during the early morning hours, Cheeks shot Brylan Butcher, 14, in the head before leaving his body crammed between trash cans in an alleyway in the Hilltop neighborhood of Columbus.
The boy’s body was discovered the next morning by a female dumpster diver, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
“He’s definitely dead,” the 911 caller said.
The victim was identified several days later as Butcher, who had recently run away from the Abraxas youth treatment facility in Shelby, a small town located roughly 80 miles northeast of Columbus. Both the slain boy and his convicted killer hailed from nearby Mansfield.
And, as it turned out, both Cheeks and Butcher were captured by surveillance footage — the cold-blooded act itself caught on video.
In that footage, Cheeks and Butcher are seen in a car together. Cheeks leaves the passenger seat of the vehicle while parked on South Terrace Avenue. Then, the defendant shoots Butcher and gets into the driver’s seat, according to the Dispatch.
In a sentencing memo, prosecutors said Cheeks killed Butcher as “part of a crime spree that included acts of violence, property crime, and firearms.” The state argued Cheeks believed Butcher “knew too much” about the spree – which is detailed in a 12-count indictment issued by Richland County and attached to the sentencing memo – and which included a stolen vehicle discussed during trial.
That stolen vehicle also figured prominently in Butcher’s death.
“Deceiving a 14-year-old boy to enter a vehicle and driving him in the middle of the night out of town to execute him, before actually putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger, is, by itself, sufficient to warrant a term of life in prison without the possibility of parole,” the memo reads. “[I]t is reasonable to conclude he put a bullet in Mr. Butcher’s head to silence a witness to his crimes.”
Before his death, Butcher spent time in foster care in Mansfield. He was sent to the youth facility, although he frequently ran away. He was ultimately reported as a runaway by Abraxas for the final time on Feb. 20, 2022.
The since-condemned man had “no remorse” in the days after the shooting, prosecutors noted in the sentencing memo.
“To tell people that he would sleep ‘fine’ is a glimpse into the mind of one who cannot conform to the norms of society,” the court filing reads.
Prosecutors also sought to preempt what they described a likely story from the defense “about a childhood that no one should endure.” While acknowledging the relevance of such information, the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office urged the judge to make sure Cheeks never has “an opportunity to rejoin society.”
And, in the end, the court obliged the state.
