Man sent to prison for decades in June slaying in Dayton

DAYTON — A man was sentenced in Montgomery County Tuesday in the fatal shooting of a maintenance man at the Terrace View Apartments on North Smithville Road in June.

• Jason Shontee, 52, remains in Montgomery County Jail
• Victim was 47-year-old Robert Hildebrand
• Dayton police shot, killed a dog they said attacked a K-9

Click here to download our free mobile apps for breaking news and weather

UPDATE @ 11:39 a.m. (Nov. 29)

A judge sentenced Jason Shontee to 21 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter and other charges in death of Robert Hildebrand.

The judge said Shontee deliberately brought a gun to the violent, fatal confrontation.

Jason Shontee apologized in court during his sentencing hearing.

UPDATE @ 4:50 p.m. (Nov. 8)

Jason Shontee, 53, has agreed to a plea deal before his murder trial was set to begin later this week.

Shontee has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter with a three-year firearm specification and with a repeat violent offender specification, according to the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office.

The case stems from the June 13 fatal shooting of 47-year-old Robert Hildebrand.

Shontee was a homeless man when he pulled a firearm out of a bag and shot Hildebrand inside an apartment building in the 300 block of North Smithville Road, according to the prosecutor’s office.

The victim had been working as a caretaker for the property and had locked Shontee out of the building. The defendant had been stashing stolen items in the apartment building, and the victim reported that Shontee threatened to shoot him on two separate occasions leading up to the fatal shooting, officials said.

Shontee is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 29. He faces a sentence of serving a prison term between 15 to 21 years, according to the prosecutor’s office.

FULL REPORT (June 21): 

Jason Shontee, 52, is due in a Montgomery County courtroom Thursday to answer charges accusing him of murder, felonious assault and having weapons as a felon. A Montgomery County grand jury indicted him Tuesday in the shooting death of Robert Hildebrand outside the Terrace View Apartments on North Smithville Road.

Friends of Hildebrand said he was the maintenance man for the complex who had a problem with a man accused of squatting in one of the vacant units.

A neighbor, Larry Boykin, said, “… it just wasn’t right and Bobby confronted [the accused squatter] about it and ever since then they’ve had a problem. He [the accused squatter] was still attempting to come back here after it was discovered by Bobby and that’s when confrontations and stuff like that started.”

Boykin, who offered his comments during a vigil for Hildebrand, did not identify the squatter by name. Dayton police have not commented on Boykin’s statements.

Several people who said they know Hildebrand said he also was the full-time maintenance man at the Lakewoods Apartments, an 11-story high-rise on Wilmington Avenue.

About 7:35 p.m. June 14, police and fire dispatched to the complex found several individuals. One ran, but police caught him and determined he was a person of interest in the homicide and detectives were trying to access his involvement in the incident, Dayton Lt. Mark Ponichtera said that night.

A K-9 unit brought to track for evidence was attacked by a dog that was loose on the grounds of the complex. A police officer shot and killed that dog, Ponichtera said. The dog’s owner, overcome by emotion, confronted police and later draped himself over the lifeless animal.

“It’s unfortunate,” Ponichtera said that night. “These things happen from time to time. The police dog was doing its duty, trying to find evidence or suspects.”

The shooting of the dog will be handled separately, internally, to make sure police department policy was followed, the lieutenant said. The name of the officer who shot the dog has not been made public.