Topline: The killer later told someone he’d “sleep fine” after pulling the trigger, court records revealed.
Published: October 5, 2025 8:00 am ET
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Jaheym Cheeks (via Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney's Office)
COLUMBUS, OH — A jury has convicted a 23-year-old Ohio man of orchestrating and carrying out the execution-style killing of a 14-year-old runaway whose body was found discarded between trash cans in a Columbus alley.
According to the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Jaheym Cheeks was found guilty on September 17 of five felony charges — including two counts of aggravated murder, two counts of murder, and one count of kidnapping — in the 2022 death of Brylan Butcher. The jury also found that Cheeks used a firearm in the commission of each crime.
The sentencing, held October 3, resulted in Cheeks receiving the maximum penalty allowed by law: life in prison without the possibility of parole, as reported by The Columbus Dispatch. Cheeks is already serving a separate prison term of more than nine years from an unrelated case in Richland County.
The body of Brylan Butcher, who had been reported missing from the Abraxas juvenile treatment facility near Mansfield roughly two weeks prior, was discovered just before 8 a.m. on March 5, 2022, in the 300 block of South Terrace Avenue in Columbus. Police said he had been shot once in the head.
Prosecutors argued that Cheeks lured the teenager under false pretenses and planned the killing in advance. According to trial testimony cited by the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office, Cheeks drove Butcher from Mansfield to Columbus under the guise of a routine outing, only to execute him hours later in a residential alley shortly after midnight.
Surveillance footage recovered from the area played a pivotal role in the case. As described by WSYX and confirmed in court records reviewed by The Dispatch, a camera captured the moments leading up to the shooting at 12:23 a.m. The video showed two individuals — now confirmed to be Cheeks and Butcher — walking closely together before one figure collapses and the other runs back toward a waiting vehicle.
The investigation quickly extended beyond Ohio. Three days after the murder, Cheeks and 22-year-old Justice Vereen — who prosecutors say served as his lookout — were stopped at a gas station in Kimball, Tennessee. A day later, local police there recovered a firearm discarded in a nearby trash can. Ballistics testing confirmed it as the murder weapon, according to the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office.
Vereen later pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter for her role in the crime and was sentenced on October 3 to 11 to 16½ years in prison by Franklin County Judge Kim Brown, the same judge who sentenced Cheeks.
In a sentencing memo obtained by The Dispatch, prosecutors said Cheeks admitted to a witness that he would “sleep fine” after killing Butcher. They pointed to his actions and criminal history — including several other crimes committed in the days leading up to the shooting — as grounds for the harshest penalty available. Cheeks, they argued, believed Butcher “knew too much.”
“Deceiving a 14-year-old boy to enter a vehicle and driving him in the middle of the night out of town to execute him, before actually putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger, is, by itself, sufficient to warrant a term of life in prison without the possibility of parole,” prosecutors wrote.
The Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office credited the successful prosecution to a wide collaboration among agencies, including the Columbus Division of Police, the Kimball Police Department in Tennessee, and civilian witnesses who provided critical video evidence.
Presumption of Innocence: A presumption of innocence means that any defendant in a criminal trial is presumed to be innocent until they have been proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. The defendant in this case is only accused of the charges set forth in the criminal complaint. They are innocent until proven guilty.
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Boy, 14, Shot in the Head Because Killer Believed He ‘Knew Too Much’
The killer later told someone he’d “sleep fine” after pulling the trigger, court records revealed.
By Jacob Charles
Published: October 5, 2025 8:00 am ET
Jaheym Cheeks (via Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney's Office)
COLUMBUS, OH — A jury has convicted a 23-year-old Ohio man of orchestrating and carrying out the execution-style killing of a 14-year-old runaway whose body was found discarded between trash cans in a Columbus alley.
According to the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Jaheym Cheeks was found guilty on September 17 of five felony charges — including two counts of aggravated murder, two counts of murder, and one count of kidnapping — in the 2022 death of Brylan Butcher. The jury also found that Cheeks used a firearm in the commission of each crime.
The sentencing, held October 3, resulted in Cheeks receiving the maximum penalty allowed by law: life in prison without the possibility of parole, as reported by The Columbus Dispatch. Cheeks is already serving a separate prison term of more than nine years from an unrelated case in Richland County.
The body of Brylan Butcher, who had been reported missing from the Abraxas juvenile treatment facility near Mansfield roughly two weeks prior, was discovered just before 8 a.m. on March 5, 2022, in the 300 block of South Terrace Avenue in Columbus. Police said he had been shot once in the head.
Prosecutors argued that Cheeks lured the teenager under false pretenses and planned the killing in advance. According to trial testimony cited by the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office, Cheeks drove Butcher from Mansfield to Columbus under the guise of a routine outing, only to execute him hours later in a residential alley shortly after midnight.
Surveillance footage recovered from the area played a pivotal role in the case. As described by WSYX and confirmed in court records reviewed by The Dispatch, a camera captured the moments leading up to the shooting at 12:23 a.m. The video showed two individuals — now confirmed to be Cheeks and Butcher — walking closely together before one figure collapses and the other runs back toward a waiting vehicle.
The investigation quickly extended beyond Ohio. Three days after the murder, Cheeks and 22-year-old Justice Vereen — who prosecutors say served as his lookout — were stopped at a gas station in Kimball, Tennessee. A day later, local police there recovered a firearm discarded in a nearby trash can. Ballistics testing confirmed it as the murder weapon, according to the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office.
Vereen later pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter for her role in the crime and was sentenced on October 3 to 11 to 16½ years in prison by Franklin County Judge Kim Brown, the same judge who sentenced Cheeks.
In a sentencing memo obtained by The Dispatch, prosecutors said Cheeks admitted to a witness that he would “sleep fine” after killing Butcher. They pointed to his actions and criminal history — including several other crimes committed in the days leading up to the shooting — as grounds for the harshest penalty available. Cheeks, they argued, believed Butcher “knew too much.”
“Deceiving a 14-year-old boy to enter a vehicle and driving him in the middle of the night out of town to execute him, before actually putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger, is, by itself, sufficient to warrant a term of life in prison without the possibility of parole,” prosecutors wrote.
The Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office credited the successful prosecution to a wide collaboration among agencies, including the Columbus Division of Police, the Kimball Police Department in Tennessee, and civilian witnesses who provided critical video evidence.
Presumption of Innocence: A presumption of innocence means that any defendant in a criminal trial is presumed to be innocent until they have been proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. The defendant in this case is only accused of the charges set forth in the criminal complaint. They are innocent until proven guilty.
Editor's Note: ThePo makes every effort to accurately transcribe the contents of affidavits of probable cause contained in criminal complaints. Often, the complaints themselves are copies of copies of faxed copies, and are difficult to read. To confirm the accuracy of our transcription, contact the Magisterial District Court listed above and request a copy of the criminal complaint. It's a public record to which you are entitled.
Must Read
Editor Picks
Latest Articles
Boy, 14, Shot in the Head Because Killer Believed He ‘Knew Too Much’
The killer later told someone he’d “sleep fine” after pulling the trigger, court records revealed.
By Jacob Charles
Published: October 5, 2025 8:00 am ET
Jaheym Cheeks (via Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney's Office)
COLUMBUS, OH — A jury has convicted a 23-year-old Ohio man of orchestrating and carrying out the execution-style killing of a 14-year-old runaway whose body was found discarded between trash cans in a Columbus alley.
According to the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Jaheym Cheeks was found guilty on September 17 of five felony charges — including two counts of aggravated murder, two counts of murder, and one count of kidnapping — in the 2022 death of Brylan Butcher. The jury also found that Cheeks used a firearm in the commission of each crime.
The sentencing, held October 3, resulted in Cheeks receiving the maximum penalty allowed by law: life in prison without the possibility of parole, as reported by The Columbus Dispatch. Cheeks is already serving a separate prison term of more than nine years from an unrelated case in Richland County.
The body of Brylan Butcher, who had been reported missing from the Abraxas juvenile treatment facility near Mansfield roughly two weeks prior, was discovered just before 8 a.m. on March 5, 2022, in the 300 block of South Terrace Avenue in Columbus. Police said he had been shot once in the head.
Prosecutors argued that Cheeks lured the teenager under false pretenses and planned the killing in advance. According to trial testimony cited by the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office, Cheeks drove Butcher from Mansfield to Columbus under the guise of a routine outing, only to execute him hours later in a residential alley shortly after midnight.
Surveillance footage recovered from the area played a pivotal role in the case. As described by WSYX and confirmed in court records reviewed by The Dispatch, a camera captured the moments leading up to the shooting at 12:23 a.m. The video showed two individuals — now confirmed to be Cheeks and Butcher — walking closely together before one figure collapses and the other runs back toward a waiting vehicle.
The investigation quickly extended beyond Ohio. Three days after the murder, Cheeks and 22-year-old Justice Vereen — who prosecutors say served as his lookout — were stopped at a gas station in Kimball, Tennessee. A day later, local police there recovered a firearm discarded in a nearby trash can. Ballistics testing confirmed it as the murder weapon, according to the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office.
Vereen later pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter for her role in the crime and was sentenced on October 3 to 11 to 16½ years in prison by Franklin County Judge Kim Brown, the same judge who sentenced Cheeks.
In a sentencing memo obtained by The Dispatch, prosecutors said Cheeks admitted to a witness that he would “sleep fine” after killing Butcher. They pointed to his actions and criminal history — including several other crimes committed in the days leading up to the shooting — as grounds for the harshest penalty available. Cheeks, they argued, believed Butcher “knew too much.”
“Deceiving a 14-year-old boy to enter a vehicle and driving him in the middle of the night out of town to execute him, before actually putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger, is, by itself, sufficient to warrant a term of life in prison without the possibility of parole,” prosecutors wrote.
The Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office credited the successful prosecution to a wide collaboration among agencies, including the Columbus Division of Police, the Kimball Police Department in Tennessee, and civilian witnesses who provided critical video evidence.
Presumption of Innocence: A presumption of innocence means that any defendant in a criminal trial is presumed to be innocent until they have been proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. The defendant in this case is only accused of the charges set forth in the criminal complaint. They are innocent until proven guilty.
Editor's Note: ThePo makes every effort to accurately transcribe the contents of affidavits of probable cause contained in criminal complaints. Often, the complaints themselves are copies of copies of faxed copies, and are difficult to read. To confirm the accuracy of our transcription, contact the Magisterial District Court listed above and request a copy of the criminal complaint. It's a public record to which you are entitled.
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