A 20-year-old Cincinnati man has pleaded guilty to firing into a Covington home twice in December, admitting responsibility for two shootings in the city's Latonia neighborhood that prosecutors say were meant to kill a specific target. Gemontray Drake entered guilty pleas to two counts of attempted murder and one count of first-degree wanton endangerment, closing out a case that began with gunfire on Decoursey Avenue and later spiraled into the shooting of a 12-year-old boy who had cooperated with police.
According to WKRC, Drake shot into a residence in the 4400 block of Decoursey Avenue on December 14, 2025, then returned three days later and fired multiple rounds into the same home again, this time sending bullets into a neighboring residence as well. That second attack led to the wanton endangerment charge. Prosecutors said Drake had announced his intention to shoot the residence's occupant, 19-year-old Jayden Marsh, in social media messages beforehand.
A Feud That Spread Beyond the Shooter
The case did not end with Drake's arrest. Marsh, the intended target named in Drake's indictment, was himself arrested two months later and charged with attempted murder after allegedly shooting a 12-year-old boy on McKee Street in Latonia, according to WHIO TV. Prosecutors said the boy had witnessed Drake's December shootings and assisted Covington detectives before he was shot on February 22, 2026.
The boy sustained life-threatening injuries and multiple gunshot wounds and required emergency care from neighbors on the sidewalk before being transported to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, where he remained in critical condition, per LINK nky. A neighbor used chest gauze pads to keep him conscious until paramedics arrived, the outlet reported. Whether Marsh's separate attempted murder case has since reached a plea or trial, and the boy's long-term recovery status, remain open questions.
Drake's Arrest
Drake was arrested after the shootings.
A Kenton County Grand Jury had initially indicted Drake on two counts of attempted murder and nine counts of first-degree wanton endangerment, exposing him to a potential sentencing range of 10 to 65 years, WKRC reports. He was held at the Kenton County Detention Center on a $1 million bond following that indictment.
Prosecutors Recommend 15 Years
Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders and Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Hunter Eickhoff recommended a 15-year prison sentence covering all three felony offenses as part of the plea deal. “These shootings were as brazen as they were dangerous,” Sanders said, according to the station's report. Sanders also said Drake is lucky he did not hit anyone, because he would otherwise be facing a far longer prison term.
Under Kentucky's Violent Offender Statute, KRS 439.3401, Drake must serve 85% of whatever sentence the court imposes before he becomes eligible for parole, a provision that bars violent offenders from using statutory good-time credits to reduce custody time below that threshold, per the Legislative Research Commission.
Drake's formal sentencing is scheduled for October 27 at 1:30 p.m. before Kenton Circuit Judge Patricia Summe.
A Neighborhood Watching Its Crime Numbers
Covington police restored public access to crime data in July after a gap that began in August 2025, launching an interactive mapping portal that tracks seven major violent and property crime categories, per 91.7 WVXU. The department had previously dropped a third-party mapping vendor to save municipal funds before building the in-house tool with city analysts.
