A Lucas County judge bemoaned youths’ easy access to guns Tuesday before sending a 17-year-old to prison for life for the 2023 murder of a 14-year-old friend.
Zammarion Candie, 17, of the 4000 block of Heatherdowns Boulevard, will be eligible for parole after 18 years under the sentence Judge Lindsay Navarre handed down in Lucas County Common Pleas Court.
He pleaded guilty last month to murder with a three-year firearms specification for the July 19, 2023, death of Adrian Johnson.
“You both had your entire lives in front of you. Now you are lost and both families are grieving,” Judge Navarre told Candie. “You should never have had access to a gun, but in a country where guns outnumber people, that access is far too abundant.”
According to the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office, Candie and young Johnson got into an argument at Candie’s grandmother’s house that advanced into a fight. Candie shot the victim once in the chest, then extended both arms while pointing the gun and shot the 14-year-old a second time in the back.
Candie ditched the gun in a neighbor’s bush while running away, prosecutors said.
In a letter read to the court by Stephanie Scott, young Johnson’s grandmother, Amber Brown, the victim’s mother, said the boy was “a talented artist” who was contemplating a career in design when his life was cut short.
“He was very passionate about his people and things he believed in,” Ms. Brown wrote. “He was always willing to fight for what was right.”
She concluded that while “feelings of hatred and unforgiveness are festering,” she needed to find a way to forgive Candie and hoped justice would be done in court.
Candie was 16 at the time of the shooting and was initially charged in juvenile court. His case was bound over to common-pleas court in June.
He offered a brief apology toward the proceeding’s start as well as a pledge to better his life going forward. He received 580 days’ credit for time already served.
First Published February 25, 2025, 10:58 p.m.
