Springfield man indicted with murder counts after Yellow Springs shooting death

There was a heavy police presence in Yellow Springs on South High Street Thursday night, March 14, 2024, following a report of a shooting. MARSHALL GORBY \STAFF

Credit: Marshall Gorby

Credit: Marshall Gorby

There was a heavy police presence in Yellow Springs on South High Street Thursday night, March 14, 2024, following a report of a shooting. MARSHALL GORBY \STAFF

A Springfield man on Wednesday was indicted in Greene County on counts of aggravated murder and other charges after a 71-year-old Yellow Springs woman was shot and killed in her home earlier this month.

Jackson Bleything, 22, faces a maximum potential penalty of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, according to a release from the Greene County Prosecutor’s Office.

Police identified the woman as Connie Vang, according to an incident report provided to the newspaper through a public records request.

The report stated that around 7:50 p.m. March 14, a Yellow Springs police officer, along with a fire department medic, was called to a house on South High Street on the report of an assault with a victim suffering from a gunshot wound.

The officer sent out a Signal 99, which requested all available units in the area. Village dispatch records show the incident was briefly thought to be an “active shooting.”

Bleything, was apprehended after threatening a man with a gun in Yellow Springs during the weekend after the fatal shooting. Investigators with the Clark County Sheriff’s Office and agents with BCI contacted Bleything at his residence in German Township, Clark County, where he was taken into custody.

“Several items of evidentiary value were recovered from Bleything’s home and an adjacent property,” according to a Greene County Prosecutor’s Office press release.

Bleything was also indicted Wednesday on counts of inducing panic, felonious assault and firearms charges.

Vang was a hard worker, a grandmother and “one of the kindest and most beautiful humans,” according to her obituary.

“Connie was the type of mom that would bring anybody in, feed them, give them a place to sleep, and send them off with $20 dollars in their pocket to ensure their welfare,” her obituary said. “She was the most caring and innocent soul.”

Bleything is an inmate in the Greene County Jail. A Xenia Municipal Court judge on March 18 gave him a $1 million cash or surety bond.

An arraignment and bond hearing has not been scheduled for Bleything as of Thursday. The Greene County Prosecutor’s Office will seek to have the defendant held without bail.

An indictment is an allegation, and a defendant should be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Jackson Bleything. Photo courtesy of Miami Valley Jails.

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