A 16-year-old-year-old Ohio boy charged with murdering 2 men and one teen in 17 days last year is held on $8.2 million bond at the Hamilton County Justice Center, court records show.
Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Terry Nestor set the high bond for Michael Madaris, Jr. during a brief hearing Thursday.
The teen originally was charged in December as a juvenile when he was just 15. At the time, Cincinnati police said he shot and killed three men in September and October 2021.
Hamilton County Juvenile Court Judge Melissa Powers recently bound his case over to the adult court, where he now faces a possible life sentence in prison if convicted on all charges.
All but one of those 20 charges are felonies:
- six counts of murder,
- five counts of felonious assault,
- three counts of kidnapping,
- two counts of abduction, and
- one count each of burglary, tampering with evidence, carrying concealed weapons and obstructing official business.
The teen was not in court for the hearing. One of his two public defenders filed court papers waiving his right to be present.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters announced his indictment on October 28, saying:
“Frankly, I don’t think [life in prison is] enough, but we will do everything we can to see that [he] never get[s] out of jail.”
Madaris Jr. is accused of killing 18-year-old Avante Beatty, 39-year-old Yarsellay Sammie, and 16-year-old Javier Randolph because they were “potentially identified as rival gang members,” Deters has said.
The teen and an unknown accomplice are accused of opening fire on Beatty in an Avondale parking lot in Sept. 26, 2021, Cincinnati police have said.
Deters says Sammie was standing on a sidewalk in Evanston two weeks later, on Oct. 12, 2021, when Madaris shot him multiple times from the sunroof of a moving vehicle. The next day, Madaris fired multiple shots at Randolph also from the sunroof of a moving vehicle.
When the victim tried to flee, Madaris and another suspect chased Randolph on foot into a backyard and shot him multiple times.
The kidnapping charge came after Deters says a teenage victim was pulled into a residence because he was listening to a rival rap song.
Madaris and his group recorded themselves terrorizing the teen, according to the prosecutor as he played what he says is a video of it during his news conference last month.
The kidnapping offense occurred between Aug. 25, 2021, and Oct. 31, 2021, at an apartment in the 1900 block of Colerain Avenue in Mt. Airy, court records show.
Madaris and others are pointing guns at the victim, yelling at him to dance and get undressed, according to Deters. The teen obeyed while sobbing with his hands over his head in an attempt to protect himself from being killed.
An adult also was charged with kidnapping in connection to this is Roneal Reese, 20. court records show.
In all, Reese is charged with kidnapping, two counts of felonious assault and having weapons while under disability. He is prohibited from carrying a gun due to a previous burglar conviction while he was a juvenile in August 2018, court records show.
Reese and co-defendants (which Deters says includes Madaris) “held the victim at gunpoint and restrained him of his liberty, while threatening and humiliating the victim,” reads Reese’s Bill of Particulars filed in his court case.
“As a result, the victim suffered serious psychological and physiological harm.”
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