A grand jury indicted a witness to February's shooting death of a Meigs County man for involuntary manslaughter today.
Prosecutors say John Perry, 23, of New Marshfield, caused the death of Donnie Putnam when he recklessly returned fire during February's violent raid. Perry was high on drugs at the time.
During the summer, juries convicted Mohat Osman, 17, Phillip Boler, 27, and Abdifatah Abdi, 17, for leading the raid, which left Putnam dead from a gunshot wound to the chest. The judge sentenced each of them to 28 years to life in prison.
Last month, Hamda Jama, 21, who accompanied the others on the raid, agreed to spend four years in prison as part of plea agreement with prosecutors.
Perry was not among the four who led the raid but helped the residents repel the assault. Prosecutors have already obtained indictments against Perry for tampering with evidence and perjury.
Though he was part of the shooting, Perry would not testify in the three previous trials when prosecutors called him to the stand.
Prosecutors say he fled the shootout with the gun he used during the firefight, turned in a different gun when he surrendered to police weeks later and lied to investigators while under oath.
County Prosecutor C. David Warren said his office will ask the court to merge the new charges with the previous evidence tampering and perjury charges.
Perry currently resides in the Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail and will return to court on Thursday at 1 p.m. for arraignment.
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Frank Thomas
