DAYTON — A Dayton man was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to his role in the 2019 kidnapping conspiracy that resulted in the death of Kwasi Casey, whose body was later found in a detached garage in Dayton.
Eric Blackshear, 42, pleaded guilty in February 2022 to participating in the conspiracy to kidnap Casey that resulted in his death. On Thursday, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Court documents show that Blackshear and four other co-conspirators kidnapped and abducted Casey at gunpoint on July 7, 2019. Others facing charges include: Antoine Dye, 37; Markale Thomas, 28; Devon Love, 29; and Ryan Reese, 27.
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“Casey was taken to one of the defendant’s homes, where he was held against his will and beaten with a baseball bat. Another defendant made ransom demands of the victim’s family,” the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Court records show Casey escaped on July 8, 2019, but was recaptured and physically assaulted again. The Justice Department stated he died from the injuries as a result of Blackshear and the co-conspirator’s actions.
Casey’s body was hidden in a garage on Fountain Avenue and on Sept. 17, 2019, prosecutors said the suspects set the garage on fire to destroy evidence and Casey’s body.
Dayton police were called out to the garage later that month after a man who said he was contracted to clean up the site reported finding a bone after fire investigators had already left the scene.
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“I was cleaning out this garage and there’s a bone that looks like it belongs to a body. We don’t know if we want to keep messing with it or not,” the caller told 911 dispatchers. “It’s a big bone.”
News Center 7 previously reported that police also recovered “homicide evidence” that included a bloody carpet, latex glove and casing from a bullet from the fire scene.
Casey’s remains were not identified until Oct.13, 2019. Days before the remains were identified, News Center 7 spoke with his family who was concerned about what happened to him after they hadn’t heard from Casey for months.
“It’s been three months,” Casey’s sister Latoya Rutledge told News Center 7′s Mike Campbell. “That’s a lot of time.”
Dye pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to kidnapping resulting in death in December 2021. The status of the cases for Thomas, Love and Reese were not immediately known.
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