Creshella C. Jarju, left (Columbus Police), Roger Prophet, right (GoFundMe), and the home where Prophet was killed, center (Google Maps).
A 46-year-old woman in Ohio may spend the rest of her days behind bars for killing her boyfriend by shooting the 54-year-old man inside of their home and providing shifting stories to authorities in which she claimed the victim accidentally shot himself and later blamed the attack on an alleged unknown intruder.
Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Judge Kimberly Cocroft on Tuesday ordered Creshella C. Jarju to serve a sentence of life in a state correctional facility with the chance of parole after 24 years for the 2020 slaying of Roger Prophet, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
A jury earlier this month found Jarju guilty on one count each of murder as the result of an intentional assault, tampering with physical evidence, and being a felon in possession of a firearm. The same jury found Jarju not guilty on one additional count of murder that specified she intentionally killed Prophet.
According to a news release from the Columbus Division of Police, officers with the 143 Cruiser District at about 1:41 a.m. on April 2, 2020, responded to a home in the 3900 block of Carlton Avenue on the East Side of Columbus.
As they approached the scene, first responders said they came across an adult female — later identified as Jarju — who was outside of a home a few doors away from the address to which they had been dispatched. Police said that Jarju had ran to a neighbor’s home pleading for help and asked them to call the police.
Officers found the correct location and entered the home. Inside, they quickly located an adult male victim — later identified as Prophet — who was bleeding after suffering from what appeared to be at least one gunshot wound.
Emergency medical personnel with the Columbus Fire Department responded to the scene and pronounced Prophet dead at about 1:52 a.m., police said. Officers at the scene took Jarju into custody and charged her with murder, noting that the motive for the shooting remained “unclear.”
Court documents obtained by The Columbus Dispatch provided additional details about the circumstances surrounding Prophet’s death.
Investigators reportedly spoke to the neighbor whose house Jarju went to for help following the shooting. The neighbor reportedly told police that when she came to the house, Jarju said that Prophet had accidentally shot himself.
“Ms. Jarju would only tell detectives that she was in the bathroom and opened the door and saw Mr. Prophet lying on the floor,” police reportedly wrote in a probable cause affidavit.
However, forensic investigators reportedly determined that Prophet had been in the hallway just outside of his bathroom when he was fatally shot and that the shooter fired at him from inside of the bathroom.
Jarju later changed her story and told the police that there was an intruder in the home who shot and killed Prophet, prosecutors said, per the Dispatch.
Prosecutors also noted that a chemical test showed that Jarju tested positive for having gun residue on her hands. The Dispatch reported that after the shooting, Jarju hid the murder weapon somewhere in the home, waiting more than a year before telling investigators where they could find it.
