An Ohio woman who drove the gunmen in the 2018 murders of a pregnant woman and her fiancé will face no additional probation or time behind bars, a Franklin County judge has ruled.
Aliana Royster has already served more than a year in jail and nearly nine months on house arrest.
Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Julie Lynch sentenced 23-year-old Alianna Royster last week to two years of probation for one count of aggravated robbery. Lynch immediately terminated Royster’s parole based on her amount of time served and that she’s long reported regularly to the court in this case. Royster pleaded guilty to the first-degree felony in February 2018.
Franklin County Assistant Prosecutor Jason Manning said both victims’ families asked for no jail time to be imposed in Royster’s case. Manning declined to comment further on the case.
Royster’s attorney, Mark Hunt, declined to comment on the case.
Royster’s codefendants both received lengthy prison sentences for murdering 23-year-old Keith Williams and 21-year-old Marlazia Jones-Mattox during a robbery at their Hilltop residence.
Royster, then 18, told Columbus police that she drove Mario Wade, 24-year-old Christian Dillion and a 15-year-old male to a Hague Avenue house on Jan. 1, 2018 so they could buy narcotics. All three were armed, she told police, and talk turned to robbing Williams of narcotics and cash.
After a Franklin County jury convicted Wade, 23, in mid-August of the two murders, a judge sentenced Wade to 72 years to life in prison. A jury convicted Christian Dillion last year and he received a sentence of 78 years to life in prison.
The 15-year-old male was shot during the robbery by Williams and is a triplegic now, so charges were not pursued against him, according to the Franklin County Prosecutor’s office.
According to the prosecutor’s office, Wade, Dillion and the teen were members of the Hilltop Hot Boys gang.
Williams and Jones-Mattox, who were engaged, died of their gunshot wounds. Jones-Mattox, who was pregnant and nearly full-term at the time of the shooting, was rushed to the former Mount Carmel West Hospital, where doctors delivered her child.
The baby was without oxygen for more than 45 minutes, causing cerebral palsy, prosecutors previously said.
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