James Jermaine Starks Jackson II pled guilty Friday to felonious assault, a felony of the second degree, and using weapons while under disability which is a felony of the third degree, according to Wood County Prosecuting Attorney Paul Dobson .
He also pled to a specification association with the felonious assault charge that he had discharged a gun from a motor vehicle.
Starks Jackson, 23, had been charged with the above offenses as well as attempted murder after firing several rounds from a handgun while a passenger in a car near downtown Bowling Green in the early morning hours of Feb. 9.
One of the bullets struck a bystander, Kobe Peterson, in the abdomen. Peterson had to undergo several emergency surgeries to repair the damage.
Starks Jackson was visiting Bowling Green from Fremont with several other people in the vehicle, when they stopped to engage with another group on the sidewalk of North Main Street just north of downtown.
Witnesses said that neither Starks Jackson nor any other members of his group were being threatening or in danger during the incident. As he and his group returned to the car to drive off, Starks Jackson pulled a .22 caliber handgun and fired several rounds down Main Street, where Peterson was standing with others. When police arrived, several witnesses identified Starks Jackson as the shooter.
During the investigation, it was uncovered that Starks Jackson had been convicted in Sandusky County of aggravated rioting in June, 2019. That charge is considered an offense of violence in Ohio, making it a felony for Starks Jackson to possess a firearm.
“We are grateful to the Bowling Green Police Department for their great work in tracking Mr. Starks Jackson and his associates from Main Street, Bowling Green, to Fremont and several other locations,” Dobson said. “Because of their work, Mr. Starks Jackson was faced with little alternative to pleading guilty.”
“The case also shows what can be accomplished when courageous citizens step forward and assist police by telling them what they saw and what they know,” Dobson said. “We thank them as well.”
Starks Jackson faces a mandatory five-year prison sentence for the gun specification, as well as a possible eight to 12 years in prison for the felonious assault, and another three years for the weapons charge.
The attempted murder charge, which will be dismissed at his sentencing along with other gun specifications, would have resulted in a potential sentence of 11 to 15 ½ years instead of the felonious assault time.
He will be sentenced on July 17, at 9:30 a.m., before Common Pleas Judge Matthew Reger.
Michael Moore, 19, was also charged with attempted murder and felonious assault out of the same incident. He is alleged to have been the driver of the vehicle in which Starks Jackson fled the scene.
In Ohio, such involvement could make an individual complicit in the crime and subjects that person to the same charges and penalties. Moore’s case is still ongoing. He has a pretrial conference scheduled for May 29, and jury trial scheduled for the end of August.
