Jason Strain has been sentenced to 23 to 28 years in prison after admitting he shot and killed James Land during a predawn attack in Manchester. The sentence brings a major courtroom resolution to a fatal Adams County shooting that began with a suspect fleeing across state lines.
According to Local 12, Strain pleaded guilty yesterday to voluntary manslaughter and improperly discharging a firearm into a habitation. He had originally been charged with murder before entering the plea and receiving the 23-to-28-year prison sentence.
The shooting happened before dawn on January 26, 2025, near East Fifth Street and Starks Avenue in Manchester. Land, 47, was found in the road with multiple gunshot wounds and died at the scene, while witnesses told investigators they saw someone running away, WLWT reported.
Investigators quickly identified Strain as a suspect and believed he was heading to Bowling Green, Kentucky. WBKO reported that Bowling Green police located his vehicle and stopped him without incident, ending the search just hours after the shooting.
What The Plea Means Under Ohio Law
Ohio law defines voluntary manslaughter as knowingly causing another person’s death while under the influence of sudden passion or a sudden fit of rage brought on by serious provocation, and classifies it as a first-degree felony. That statutory definition describes the offense itself but does not, on its own, spell out the specific facts or negotiations behind Strain’s plea.
The separate firearm charge involves knowingly discharging a gun at or into an occupied structure that serves as someone’s permanent or temporary home, under Ohio’s habitation-discharge statute. Public reports have not described a motive for the shooting.
Hoodline previously covered the early Manchester shooting while investigators were still working to identify the victim and determine what happened. With Strain’s guilty plea and sentencing, the case has moved from an open homicide investigation to a lengthy prison term for the man who admitted the killing.
