MESSAGE FROM PROSECUTOR SHERRI BEVAN WALSH

Contact:  April Wiesner

(330) 643-8386

El-Jones Found Guilty on All Counts in Murder Case

(September 2, 2011… Akron) … Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh announced today that Elohim El-Jones, 26, of Jason Avenue in Akron was found guilty by a jury on the following counts:

·         Aggravated Murder with a three-year gun specification

·         Murder, with a three-year gun specification

·         Two counts of Felonious Assault, with a three-year gun specification

·         Weapons Under Disability

·         Participating in a Criminal Gang

El-Jones shot and killed Michael Kirksey after the two were involved in a fight at the Chapel Hill Mall. The night after the fight, El-Jones walked with a female friend to the home of Nerieda Riley, Kirksey’s aunt and the godmother of the friend’s sister.  After confirming from the female friend that Kirksey was inside the house, El-Jones fired a gun through the window of the apartment.  Kirksey was shot multiple times and died shortly thereafter at the hospital.  Riley was also shot, but she survived.

After the shooting, El-Jones ran to a neighbor’s house and asked for a ride to the hospital, claiming he had been shot. Before arriving at any hospital, El-Jones confessed he had not been shot and ran off. He was a fugitive until January 2011.

El-Jones will be sentenced on September 14 at 10:00 a.m.

-30-