The shooter of Ohio State student Jason Gervais was found guilty of aggravated murder and attempted murder by a jury on Friday.
According to local media, James T. Conway III, 24, admitted to shooting the Gervais, 21, behind Dockside Dolls Jan. 19, but he claimed the shooting was in retaliation for the stabbing of his brother, Jeff Conway, earlier that night.
The jury in Franklin County Common Pleas Court will return this week to recommend whether James Conway will be sentenced to death or life in prison.
James Conway also shot Mandel Williams, the man who stabbed Jeff Conway outside the strip club prior to the shooting. James Conway’s defense attorneys claimed Williams grabbed Gervais as a shield. Yet one witness said James Conway fired at Williams even though he saw Gervais in the way, attempting to get revenge on Williams.
Ronald Trent, a cousin of James Conway, said James tried to hire him to kill both a witness to the shooting and a Conway look-alike. According to Conway’s plan, the Conway look-alike would be taped confessing to the shooting and then killed after providing the fake evidence. Trent and Conway met in county jail after Conway had been arrested for the shooting, but Trent refused to abet him, testifying against Conway about the hit-man scheme.
Conway is also involved with two other pending cases, one concerning the murder of a Hilliard man and the other about racketeering and conspiracy to commit murders.
