22-year-old sentenced to 17 years for shooting, killing Wright State student

A 22-year-old avoided a life sentence by pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence on Friday, Oct. 4 in a Greene County court hearing.

Damion Mitchell was sentenced to 17 years in prison, according to Greene County court documents. Prior to his guilty plea, Mitchell faced the possibility of life in prison for aggravated robbery, tampering with evidence, having a weapon under disability, and the first degree murder of Jerelle Prather, a Wright State student.

When Mitchell pled guilty to tampering with evidence and involuntary manslaughter, the other charges against him were dropped, according to records of the Greene County Common Pleas Court.

In Oct. 2012, Prather was shot in his apartment on Funderburg Road before falling out of the second-story window, according to Fairborn Police records of the incident.

According to meeting minutes of the WSU Board of Trustees, Prather had almost completed his marketing degree from the Raj Soin College of Business at the time of his demise and was awarded an honorary diploma by the Board of Trustees in April 2013.

Mitchell is currently in the custody of the Lake Butler, Florida Department of Corrections.