A 19-year-old man who led Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers on a chase through downtown Cleveland before trying to carjack strangers near Case Western Reserve University is set to be sentenced this month, nearly a year after a trooper shot him in the leg outside a campus building. Leon Terrell Jr. pleaded guilty in July to nine felony counts stemming from the August 27, 2025 incident, which also left his co-defendant, 20-year-old Noreonna Echols, facing her own sentencing at the end of August.
The case traces back to a routine traffic stop that spiraled into a citywide public safety scare. According to Cleveland 19 News, Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers tried to pull over Terrell and Echols because their Kia lacked a license plate. Per WKYC, the stop began around 5:25 p.m. on Woodland Avenue in downtown Cleveland, a major arterial road connecting downtown to the city's East Side, before the 2025 Kia K4 sped off rather than stopping.
A Chase That Wound Through City Streets Onto Campus
Troopers deflated the Kia's tires to force it to stop, and the station's earlier report noted an OSHP aviation unit helicopter tracked the vehicle from above as it wove through traffic and briefly drove the wrong way before the chase moved to foot. Terrell and Echols refused to pull over, according to Cleveland 19 News, and once the car was disabled, they ran.
What happened next escalated quickly. Terrell attempted to carjack several occupied vehicles, per Cleveland 19 News, and the earlier WKYC report specified that he and Echols brandished a firearm while trying to seize both a Cadillac SUV and a Chevy SUV. The chase carried the pair onto the Case Western Reserve University campus, where an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper shot Terrell in the leg outside Tomlinson Hall on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, per the earlier WKYC account. Terrell was treated at University Hospitals for his wound, according to Cleveland 19 News.
Echols did not stay put after the Kia was stopped. The outlet's report noted she exited the disabled vehicle, then re-entered it and tried to drive away, prompting a second pursuit by troopers before she was taken into custody. No officers were injured during the incident, according to Cleveland 19 News.
Campus Locked Down as Response Unfolded
Case Western Reserve University went into a brief lockdown while the situation played out, Cleveland 19 News reported. University President Eric W. Kaler later issued a community message commending campus police and outside agencies for quickly securing the campus during the intrusion, according to the earlier WKYC account. Hoodline's earlier coverage detailed the lockdown and the immediate arrests as the incident unfolded last year.
Because an on-duty trooper used deadly force, the Cleveland Division of Police was assigned to independently investigate the shooting, per the earlier WKYC report. The findings of that use-of-force investigation have not been made public, and it remains an open question exactly where that review stands.
Guilty Pleas Cover Robbery, Weapons and Fleeing Charges
In July, Terrell pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated robbery, one count of failure to comply with an order or signal of a police officer, one count of obstructing official business, and one count of unlawful possession of dangerous ordnance, according to Cleveland 19 News. That last charge traces to a serious detail prosecutors laid out during a September 2025 court hearing: per WKYC, the dangerous-ordnance count stemmed from a machinegun conversion device — commonly called a switch — installed on the firearm to make it fire fully automatic.
Echols also pleaded guilty in July, entering pleas to two counts of aggravated robbery and one count of unlawful possession of dangerous ordnance, Cleveland 19 News reported. A Cuyahoga County grand jury had indicted Terrell on nine felony counts and Echols on six back in September 2025, and Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Ashley Kilbane set Terrell's bond at $300,000 and Echols' bond at $50,000, according to the same WKYC report.
Under Ohio Revised Code § 2921.331, failing to comply with a police order escalates from a misdemeanor to a third-degree felony when the vehicle's operation creates a substantial risk of serious physical harm to people or property — the statute that framed the fleeing charge Terrell ultimately admitted to. Terrell is scheduled to be sentenced for his role in the Case Western vehicle-carjacking case, while Echols faces her own sentencing hearing on August 31, according to Cleveland 19 News.
