A Franklin County judge has sentenced a 19-year-old Columbus man to 15 to 19½ years in prison for the fatal shooting of Richard Murphy, 19, on South Princeton Avenue in Franklinton last year. Joseph Johnson Jr. pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in Murphy's death, closing out a case that began with a chaotic confrontation on a residential block and ended with three teenagers taken into custody over the course of five weeks.
According to the Columbus Dispatch, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Chris Brown handed down the sentence on July 28. Johnson, who was 18 when he was charged, was accused of confronting Murphy along with two other males while armed with handguns on the first block of South Princeton Avenue, per the criminal complaint cited in the Dispatch's report by reporter Bethany Bruner. City homicide detectives believed an argument was the motive behind the shooting.
A Chaotic Scene on South Princeton Avenue
The shooting happened on May 12, 2025. Columbus Division of Fire medics transported Murphy to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center in critical condition after homicide detectives reported he had been shot multiple times following a brief commotion, the Dispatch's report notes. Murphy died at the hospital just after 6 p.m. that day. Separately, Franklin County Municipal Court records cited in a June 2025 WBNS-TV report state that witnesses saw three male suspects carrying handguns arrive on the block before the commotion and gunfire. Columbus police dispatch records reported by that station show officers were sent to the 20 block of South Princeton Avenue at 5:27 p.m., with Murphy pronounced dead at Grant Medical Center at 6:02 p.m.
In the days after the shooting, Columbus police said Johnson and a 14-year-old boy were the only two suspects, and both were initially identified as the people responsible. The Columbus Division of Police SWAT team arrested Johnson and the 14-year-old on May 27, 2025. WBNS-TV's report on the arrests noted that Johnson, then 18, was accused of shooting and killing Murphy, and that the 14-year-old faced the same accusation.
A Third Arrest Closes Out the Case
Columbus police charged a third male, 17-year-old Hunter Munn, with murder in Murphy's death, and announced his arrest on June 19, 2025 — more than five weeks after the shooting. With that arrest, all suspects wanted in the case were in custody, according to police. WBNS-TV's June 2025 coverage detailed where each young suspect was held: Johnson at the Franklin County Corrections Center on a $1 million bond, the 17-year-old at the Franklin County Juvenile Intervention Center, and the 14-year-old at the Juvenile Detention Facility. The two younger suspects, now identified in earlier reporting as Zion Cantrell and Munn, remain in custody at the Franklin County juvenile detention center, though their legal disposition — whether either was bound over to adult court — has not been detailed in available reporting.
Hoodline previously covered the case in a report on the third arrest that completed the roster of suspects. On July 28, 2026, more than a year after the shooting, Johnson pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, and Judge Brown sentenced him to the 15 to 19½-year term at age 19.
Part of a Broader Youth Violence Pattern
The case reflects a demographic pattern seen citywide. An NBC4 Columbus report citing Columbus Division of Police data found that nearly half of all homicide suspects in Columbus during 2025 were 21 years old or younger, a trend mirrored in a case involving a 19-year-old victim and three teenage co-defendants. Still, the broader numbers show progress: Columbus Division of Police statistics analyzed in a July 2026 report showed the city recorded 84 homicides in 2025, a 31% decrease from 2024, and WOSU Public Media reported that Columbus kept annual homicides below 100 for the first time in roughly a decade, a sharp drop from a record peak of 205 in 2021.
City officials have credited part of that decline to structural changes inside the police department. A November 2025 announcement from the City of Columbus said the Columbus Division of Police reached an approximately 80% homicide solve rate after switching to a team investigative model in 2022, up from 40-50% in prior years — a shift that helped identify all three suspects in Murphy's death within roughly five weeks of the shooting. The near west side, including Franklinton, has continued to see multi-defendant shooting investigations revisited by detectives working linked violent incidents along the West Broad Street corridor, as Hoodline reported in a cold-case Franklinton indictment earlier this year.
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