On February 18, a jury in Muskingum County reached a verdict that sealed the fate of one Lebryant Khiry Ankrom, convicting him of charges including aggravated burglary, felonious assault, and assault, as reported by the Muskingum County Prosecutor's Office. The decision came down after deliberations over a December 2024 incident wherein Ankrom viciously attacked two individuals in a Muskingum Avenue home.
On the morning of December 12, we bore witness to a violent encounter at 944 Muskingum Avenue, at 7:00 a.m., police were summoned to the scene of an assault. Ankrom, a resident of the upper floor, breached the sanctity of a downstairs bedroom, launching an attack on Stephanie Athey and, subsequently, Chad Lent. He punched Athey, causing oral injury, and turned his brutality upon Lent, resulting in a face-battered nearly beyond recognition. Despite Athey's efforts to end the violence using a metal bed rail, Ankrom left leaving destruction in his wake. At the same time, Lent's injuries were so severe that permanent vision loss was a feared outcome, necessitating extensive medical intervention, first at Genesis Hospital and subsequently Ohio State University Hospital in Columbus.
Ankrom, post-assault, was intercepted and apprehended by law enforcement with his refusal to offer a complete statement, simply stating that he had done no wrong. The complexity of the case, highlighted by difficulties in securing cooperation from the victims, became a point of focus for Assistant Prosecutors John Litle and Lucas Howard. "Ultimately, the jurors saw through to the truth and followed their oaths, which required them to assess how convincing the evidence was, rather than getting lost in distractions about the lifestyles of the parties involved," Litle told the Muskingum County Prosecutor's Office.
With the evidence weighed and the verdict cast, Judge Gerald Anderson meted out the sternest of reprisals by imposing the maximum allowable sentence on Ankrom, between 19 and 24 and a half years of incarceration, holding steadfast to the narrative of justice, where a perpetrator who not only inflicts grave harm but also shuns the mantle of accountability faces the full strength of judicial consequence, "When a person seriously harms another, refuses to accept responsibility and loses at trial having hoped this office would not find the victims, only one punishment is appropriate: a maximum, consecutive sentence," said Litle through Muskingum County Prosecutor's Office.
