Carl Godfrey, far right, listens as a family member of murder victim Deontray Otis addresses him during his sentencing hearing in Cincinnati on Feb. 12, 2024. Godfrey, who nicknamed himself after the movie character John Wick, will spend the rest of his life behind bars after a jury convicted him of four murders, including Otis’. (WCPO/YouTube)
A contract killer who nicknamed himself after the movie character John Wick received two life sentences on Monday for a murder-for-hire scheme in Ohio that took the lives of four people.
The Cincinnati jury convicted 23-year-old Carl Godfrey of two counts of aggravated murder, four counts of murder, two counts of weapons under disability and eight counts of felonious assault on Feb. 1.
“Mr. Godfrey thought of himself as a hit man. He even nicknamed himself John Wick after a popular movie series where the main character is a hit man of the criminal underworld,” said Allison Oswall, assistant Hamilton County prosecuting attorney during her opening statement.
“This is so messed up on so many levels,” said Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Jody M. Luebbers during the sentencing. “What’s going on out there? Do you not care about somebody’s life? Does life mean nothing? Because otherwise that’s what it seems like.”
Prosecutors said at the time of the indictment that an “unindicted individual” hired Godfrey to kill Jeremiah Campbell. On Jan. 31, 2021, Godfrey and Jason Gray, 21, went to a Cincinnati home and shot Campbell to death. The next day Godfrey arranged to have a then-14-year-old Mikeem Thomas fire several shots into a car, killing Terrance North.
Then on Feb. 21, 2021, Godfrey was hired by another “unindicted individual” to kill someone, according to prosecutors. Gray sent Mikeem, Gray and Mario Gordon, now 32, to kill the person. The intended target arrived in a car with two other people: Deontray Otis and Otis’ girlfriend Maliaya Freeman.
The three suspects opened up fire. Freeman testified at the trial and described her boyfriend’s last moments.
“He starts saying, he starts saying ‘I’m hit, I’m shot, I’m dead,”” said Maliaya Freeman, according to local ABC affiliate WCPO.
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Freeman and the intended victim also were hit by the gunfire but survived, prosecutors said.
Godfrey and the juvenile then allegedly killed again two days later. The victim, Donnelle Steele, also was not the intended target, prosecutors said.
The victims’ family members addressed Godfrey during the sentencing as he stood feet away.
“They had nothing to do with whatever ya’ll had going on,” Otis’ sister said. “My brother was a good person. He wasn’t out here robbing people. He wasn’t out here killing people, stealing from people, none of that.”
Another of Otis’ family members held up a poster board with his pictures on it.
“I want you to look at these pictures,” she said. “Stare them down. Because you took this man from me. You don’t deserve no mercy.”
Gray, Gordon and Mikeem, who’s being tried as an adult, are facing murder charges and are awaiting trial.
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