Plea deal upsets family of 22-year-old man fatally shot in car in Mt. Healthy

MT. HEALTHY, Ohio (WXIX) – A plea deal is expected Tuesday for a 20-year-old accused of fatally shooting a 22-year-old man inside a vehicle during a gun sale.

Daronte Copeland was 19 when he was indicted last fall in the shooting death of Brandon Grimes of Forest Park.

The victim’s mother is upset about the plea deal and spoke out on social media, saying Copeland would only face 6 to 9 years in prison.

Grimes’s family is expected to urge Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Christopher McDowell not to accept the plea deal when the hearing begins at 11 a.m.

Mount Healthy Police Department officers responded to reports of a person shot in front of an apartment building on Lakenoll Drive near the intersection with Hamilton Avenue around 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 9, 2025.

Grimes was transported to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where he died from his injuries.

Since his arrest, Copeland has been held at the Hamilton County Justice Center on a $1 million bond.

He was linked to the shooting scene using Flock surveillance camera data that tracked his vehicle traveling to and from the intersection around the time of the gunfire, an investigator with the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office wrote in an affidavit.

Eyewitnesses also positively identified Copeland as the shooter, and cell phone records confirmed communications and physical movements consistent with his involvement in the crime, according to an affidavit.

This is a clear-cut case of self-defense, according to Copeland’s lawyer, and would have come out during the trial.

Someone outside the vehicle fired on it, causing Copeland to believe his life was at risk, said his lawyer, Brandon Fox.

Investigators never determined who fired the shots, or why, Fox noted.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich has been firm that innocent people will not be wrongfully convicted on her watch – or unjustly sentenced.

She established a Conviction Integrity Unit to review past cases, saying, “Our job here is to pursue justice. Humans are not infallible, and sometimes we make mistakes.”

Last year, Pillich formally dismissed capital murder charges against Elwood Jones, who spent nearly three decades on death row.

While looking at old cases to fix errors, Pillich’s office also uses past files to pursue unpunished individuals.

Prosecutors successfully secured an indictment in a 2017 cold-case murder, reaffirming that older open cases are not forgotten.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.