Update@4:50 p.m.:
The suspect in a cold case murder investigation pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to six years in prison for the November 2005 death of 22-year-old Roscoe Shipp.
Theodore S. “Teddy” Satterwhite III, 34, had been indicted on three counts of murder and two counts of felonious assault for the killing of Shipp outside a North Gettysburg Avenue bar. Instead, Satterwhite pleaded guilty by bill of information to involuntary manslaughter with a gun specification and to felonious assault.
Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Judge Timothy O’Connell sentenced Satterwhite on Monday afternoon. The sentence will be served concurrently with an 8-year federal term Satterwhite received in May 2015 for having a machine gun and selling drugs in a 2014 case.
Satterwhite smiled and saluted toward the gallery as he left the courtroom.
The plea deal with Montgomery County prosecutors stipulated that Satterwhite had earned 348 days of jail-time credit and that he will be monitored on five years’ post-release control after his prison term.
Court documents indicate that in August and September 2014, Montgomery County Coroner’s Office and Dayton police detectives re-opened the Shipp case.
Investigators interviewed Satterwhite at the Montgomery County Jail, where he was being held in an unrelated federal case. A search warrant for an apartment in the Dayton area also was obtained for property allegedly belonging to Satterwhite.
Satterwhite consented to a DNA swab of his cheek, which he completed himself and then asked, “Can you tell me what this about?”
O’Connell wrote that detectives knew that Satterwhite’s interview should have been recorded but was not. Investigators read Satterwhite his rights, and he denied knowing about the death of Shipp during a 15-minute interview.
O’Connell ruled that Satterwhite’s statements would not be suppressed despite the lack of recording. The judge also ruled against a defense motion to suppress DNA evidence.
Defense attorney Marshall Lachman submitted a motion to compel prosecutors to disclose the identity of a confidential informant, whom Lachman referred to as a “jailhouse snitch.”
Dayton police said Shipp, who was carrying what an officer believed to be drugs, was shot multiple times and killed by three masked men with guns during an “ambush” outside JP’s Sports Bar. A second person was injured in the shooting but survived.
Montgomery County Prosecutor Mat Heck Jr. had earlier commended Dayton police detectives.
“The passage of time does not diminish the importance of finding the victim’s killer,” Heck said last year via press release.
No victim advocate statement was made on behalf of Shipp.
First report:
A man accused of shooting and killing a 22-year-old man in November 2005 pleaded guilty in court this afternoon.
Theodore Satterwhite III, 34, of Dayton, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in court as part of a plea deal that will have him serving six years in prison.
Satterwhite was accused of shooting Roscoe Shipp, 22, as he was leaving JP’s Bar and Grill, 514 North Gettysburg Ave.
Shipp was struck multiple times by bullets and died from his injuries.
A second person was also injured in the shooting, but survived.
Satterwhite was previous charged with three counts of murder and two counts of felonious assault in the case.
