DAYTON — The final of five men has pleaded guilty to federal charges connection to the kidnapping and death of a man whose body was later found in a detached garage in a Dayton three years ago.
Devon Love, 29, pleaded guilty to conspiring with four others to kidnap and abduct Kwasi Casey at gunpoint on July 7, 2019.
Four other men, Eric Blackshear, 43; Antoine Dye, 37; Markale Thomas, 28; and Ryan Reese, 27, previously pleaded guilty in the case, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.
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Court documents show that Casey was take to one of men’s homes, where he was held against his will and beaten with a baseball bat. Another one of the men made ransom demands of Casey’s family.
News Center 7 previously reported that Casey escaped on July 8, 2019, but was recaptured and was assaulted again. Casey later died of injuries sustained in the assault, according to the Department of Justice.
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.
“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.”
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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.
Blackshear was sentenced to 30 years in prison in June 2022. Sentencing dates for the other four men have yet to be determined.
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