That court date was set, then continued, after Kylen Gregory, 19, struck a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty in April to five lesser felonious assault counts in the death of the 16-year-old Bowers.
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Heizer, 21, is in the Madison Correctional Institution serving time in an unrelated case, court records show.
Gregory, who was scheduled to be sentenced June 13, could face between six and 44 years in prison, Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Dennis Langer has said. Prosecutors are seeking “at least” 35 years, records show.
Gregory’s case will then return to juvenile court because he was not convicted on murder charges, counts which caused the case to be transferred to adult court, Langer has said.
Heizer was driving the car Gregory and others were in the night the teen said he fired a shot into the back of Bowers’ car as the victim sought to flee a Willowdale Avenue dispute, court witnesses said.
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Two other defendants – both juveniles at the time of the shooting - testified in 2017 after reaching a plea deal with prosecutors on tampering with evidence charges. Those defendants, now 17 and 19, were sentenced in juvenile court.
Those two witnesses, Gregory and Heizer are all from Kettering.
Bowers, who police called an “innocent bystander,” died from a head wound two days later in what the coroner ruled was Kettering’s first gun-related homicide since 2007.
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Gregory – indicted on adult charges as a 17-year-old – pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, five felonious assault charges and discharging a firearm in a prohibited area.
A jury in November convicted Gregory of reckless homicide and discharging a firearm on or near a prohibited premise. The jury was deadlocked on murder charges and five felonious assault counts.
Gregory’s plea came a few weeks before he was scheduled to be retried on the felonious assault counts.
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