Columbus man sentenced to life in prison for two shootings on Halloween 2021, one fatal
Othman A. Abdu, 20, of the Blacklick area on Columbus' East Side, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison with the opportunity for parole after 39 years for his conviction for the fatal Halloween 2021 shooting of Hazeer Winton, 21, on the Southeast Side, and for wounding another individual in an unrelated shooting earlier that day.Othman Abdu shot two different people in unrelated incidents on opposite sides of Columbus on Halloween 2021. One of them died.On Thursday, Abdu, 20, of the Blacklick area on Columbus' Far East Side, was sentenced by Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Sheryl Munson to life in prison with the chance for parole after 39 years for his gun violence.A jury had convicted Abdu last month of two counts of murder and aggravated murder and felonious assault in the two unrelated shootings on Oct. 31, 2021.Abdu was found guilty of shooting 21-year-old Nazeer Winton about 6:35 p.m. outside of Winton’s apartment in an apartment complex on Rabbit Hill Lane off Chatte
Othman Abdu shot two different people in unrelated incidents on opposite sides of Columbus on Halloween 2021. One of them died.
On Thursday, Abdu, 20, of the Blacklick area on Columbus' Far East Side, was sentenced by Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Sheryl Munson to life in prison with the chance for parole after 39 years for his gun violence.
A jury had convicted Abdu last month of two counts of murder and aggravated murder and felonious assault in the two unrelated shootings on Oct. 31, 2021.
Abdu was found guilty of shooting 21-year-old Nazeer Winton about 6:35 p.m. outside of Winton’s apartment in an apartment complex on Rabbit Hill Lane off Chatterton Road on Columbus' Southeast Side. Winton was found lying in the street by responding officers.
Medics transported WInton to an area hospital, where the father of a then-1-year-old girl and 2-month-old boy was pronounced dead.
Hours earlier, Columbus police said Abdu shot another person in the 700 block of Wedgewood Drive on the city's West Side. That individual sustained minor injuries and survived. Abdu was eventually arrested on Nov. 19, 2021.
Munson sentenced Abdu to the minimum sentence for the charges for which he was convicted. Abdu could have faced a maximum possible sentence of life in prison without parole.
Messages seeking comment were left Thursday night with Abdu's defense attorney, Dennis Belli, and one of the Franklin County assistant prosecutors, Steven Schott.
Abdu's codefendant, 22-year-old David R. Penton Jr., also of the Blacklick area of Columbus' Far East Side, turned himself in to police on Dec. 29, 2021. He pleaded guilty on July 11 to involuntary manslaughter with firearm and drive-by specifications in connection with Winton's death.
Munson sentenced Penton that day to an indefinite prison sentence of 15 years to 18½ years, which was the joint recommendation of Franklin County prosecutors and Penton's defense attorney.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Franklin County judge sentences Columbus gunman to life in prison
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