A 21-year-old Akron man who said he shot and killed Dominic Gray, 33, last September in self-defense was found guilty of murder.
After a day and a half of deliberations, jurors found Thomas Ellis guilty of murder, felony murder, felonious assault and three firearm specifications that carry additional prison time.
‘It’s not about murder’: Akron man argues he shot, killed Dominic Gray in self-defense
Gray was shot at about 9:45 pm on Sept. 8 on the 800 block of Beardsley Street in South Akron. Ellis was arrested later that night.
“We are disappointed with the result. The jury was obviously thinking about it for a long time,” Ellis’ attorney, Adam VanHo said. “This case raises a number of issues with self-defense law that needs to be ferreted out through the courts.”
Ellis will be sentenced at 8:30 am on May 13. VanHo said Ellis would appeal the decision.
Summit County Court of Common Pleas Judge Susan Baker Ross presided over the court proceedings.
Thomas Ellis testified he acted in self-defense
In his testimony, Ellis said he heard a woman yelling as he walked home from getting snacks. After dropping the snacks off in his bedroom, he said, he confronted Gray and told him to leave the woman alone.
As Gray turned to face Ellis, the woman fled the scene, he recalled.
That’s when Gray began to charge at Ellis and threatened to kill him, Ellis said. He testified that he took one step backward, began to cry and drew his handgun from him.
He fired the first shot by accident, he said. After one or two seconds, Ellis fired three more shots.
“After the second shot, I started jumping up and moving around,” he said.
The shooting came four days after he first saw the same woman run out of an apartment building in torn clothes, yelling she was “beaten and sexually assaulted,” he said.
Ellis, who testified that he had been sexually abused in the past, said he believed that if he did not act, she would have been sexually assaulted on Sept. 8.
Prosecutors assert Gray fled before Ellis opened fire
Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Jamila Mitchell questioned Ellis’ story on Friday. No account of sexual assault or a threat made by Gray was reported to Akron police in the incident four days before the shooting.
Mitchell said the woman Ellis believed she was in danger was no longer at the scene when he approached Gray.
“By his own testimony, (Ellis) said he was no longer defending her because (the woman) was no longer present,” she said.
Mitchell questioned how Gray was shot. He was shot four times. A bullet entered his right calf and traveled through his knee. Another entered his right thigh and entered his buttocks. A third struck the back of his calf. The fatal shot entered his torso toward the side.
“Where are the gunshots in the front of the man (if)]he charged him?” she said in her closing statements.
Mitchell argued that Ellis did not shoot Gray in self-defense. Instead, Gray was fleeing the scene when Ellis opened fire, she said.
Prosecutors said there was no argument and no reported fight between Gray and Ellis, something VanHo argued against.
“Listen to the first call: ‘A woman and a dude fighting,’” he told swearers, referring to a 911 call made that night. “It makes substance what Thomas says.”
Bryce Buyakie covers courts and public safety for the Beacon Journal. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @bryce_buyakie.
