One year since Kent State homicide

Police and investigators on the scene at Ryan Place Apartment complex on Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016. The police were called around 4:15 p.m. when shots were reported.

Tuesday marks one year since the death of Kent State freshman Nick Massa.

Massa, an 18-year-old managerial marketing major, was shot and killed at the Ryan Place apartment complex on East Main Street in Kent.

Kent Police were called to the scene in the late afternoon of Feb. 7 after a 911 call reported a gunshot fired.

In the days following the shooting, three suspects who allegedly fled the crime scene — Damantae Graham, 20; Marquis Grier, 18 and Ty Kremling, 18 — were arrested. A fourth suspect, 17-year-old Anton Planicka, was later arrested but was not identified present during the crime.

All four were charged with six felonies — aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery and three counts of kidnapping — and tried as adults in the Portage County Court of Common Pleas.

The suspects pleaded not guilty to the six charges filed against them when each appeared in the courtroom of Portage County Judge Laurie Pittman. They were all held on a $2 million bond.

Following testimonies from two witnesses of the shooting in November, Graham was identified as two of three men who entered the Ryan Place apartment and held them at gunpoint while searching the property for money and alleged drug paraphernalia.

Graham was found guilty of all six felonies and sentenced to death by lethal injection.

Alex Delaney-Gesing is the managing editor, contact her at [email protected].