The family of Brandon Grimes, the 22-year-old shot and killed outside a Mt. Healthy apartment building last year, is set to deliver victim impact statements Tuesday and ask a judge to throw out a plea deal they say lets his accused killer off too easy. Prosecutors have offered 19-year-old Daronte Copeland six to nine years in prison, a number Grimes's mother calls far too short for taking a life.
Grimes was found shot in front of an apartment building near Lakenoll Drive and Hamilton Avenue on September 9, 2025, and later died at the hospital, according to WKRC. He was reportedly selling a gun to earn extra money at the time he was killed, the station reports. He left behind a young child and had been in the process of starting his own business.
Copeland, then 19, was arrested days after the killing. The Mt. Healthy Police Department asked the Criminal Investigation Section of the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office to take the lead on the homicide investigation, according to a Facebook post from the sheriff's office. Grimes was rushed to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, which runs the region's only adult Level I trauma center following a $221 million emergency department expansion completed in July 2023, Hoodline previously reported.
A Trial That Never Happened
A bench trial for Copeland had been set to begin at the end of September, but it did not go forward as scheduled, Grimes's mother, Lisa Grimes-Reed, told WKRC. Instead, the prosecutor's office told the family it would offer Copeland a plea deal of six to nine years. Grimes-Reed said that is not enough time for someone to serve for killing another person.
Before his arrest, Copeland had been a student-athlete at Western Hills High School in Cincinnati, where he ran track and played defensive back and receiver for the varsity football team, according to his MaxPreps roster page. He is scheduled to return to court Tuesday at 10 a.m., and the Grimes family plans to attend and deliver impact statements of their own.
A Second Son Lost to Gunfire
This is not the first time the family has faced this kind of grief. Brandon's older brother, Demetrius Grimes Jr., was shot and killed in 2019 at age 22 while sitting inside a vehicle with family nearby, in a case that was ruled undetermined and remains unsolved, according to a Facebook post shared by family. Grimes-Reed said no one has ever been charged in that case.
Demetrius Grimes Sr., Brandon's father, told WKRC that both of his children died from gunshots and that he struggles every day with the thought that his son is gone. Grimes-Reed said she misses her son every day and that the family cannot share future holidays with him.
What Ohio Law Allows the Family to Do
Under Article I, Section 10a of the Ohio Constitution — known as Marsy's Law and updated under House Bill 343 in April 2023 — crime victims and surviving family members hold explicit constitutional rights to consult with prosecutors on plea bargains and to deliver impact statements in court, according to a document from the Ohio Attorney General's office. That gives the Grimes family legal standing to object Tuesday, even though prosecutors retain primary discretion over negotiating the deal itself, per the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association.
Ultimate authority, however, rests with the judge. Under Rule 11 of the Ohio Rules of Criminal Procedure, trial court judges have full discretion to reject or accept a negotiated plea agreement in a felony case, though judges frequently defer to prosecutors' recommendations, according to legal guidance on Ohio plea bargains. Statewide, roughly 90% of all criminal convictions in Ohio are finalized through negotiated pleas rather than trials, the prosecuting attorneys association's figures show, reflecting how heavily the system leans on deals like the one Copeland has been offered.
A Familiar Pattern in Hamilton County Courts
The Grimes case is not an isolated example locally. Hamilton County Common Pleas Court has recently resolved other murder indictments through reductions to involuntary manslaughter carrying single-digit prison terms, including a case that resulted in a seven-year sentence earlier this month. A similar plea reduction in February sparked an emotional courtroom confrontation between families.
Mt. Healthy, an independent suburb about 15 miles north of downtown Cincinnati with roughly 6,996 residents as of the 2020 census, has seen other recent gun violence, including a shooting on Clovernook Avenue in August that remains unsolved. Citywide in neighboring Cincinnati, shooting incidents fell 20% in 2025 to 283 total victims, down from 353 in 2024 and 377 in 2023, according to WKRC, even as individual cases like Grimes's continue working through the courts. Whether the judge grants the family's request Tuesday or allows the plea deal to stand remains to be seen.
