Staff photo / Ed Runyan Kaylon Adams, 33, was sentenced to 23 to 28.5 years in prison Thursday for killing Christian A. Oliver, 29, and shooting an innocent woman bystander in the legs Nov. 19, 2023, on Zents Avenue on the North Side.

YOUNGSTOWN — Kaylon Adams, 33, pleaded guilty Thursday to involuntary manslaughter, felonious assault and improperly discharging a firearm into a habitation Thursday and was sentenced to 23 to 28.5 years in prison for killing Christian A. Oliver, 29, and shooting an innocent woman bystander in the legs Nov. 19, 2023, on Zents Avenue on the North Side.

Adams’ attorney, Lou DeFabio, and county prosecutors spent more than three hours negotiating the plea Thursday before Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge R. Scott Krichbaum accepted Adams’ guilty pleas and handed down the sentence jointly recommended by prosecutors and the defense. Adams gets credit for 409 days of jail time while awaiting trial.

Youngstown police said Oliver’s body was found in the middle of the road. In court Thursday, Assistant County Prosecutor John Juhasz said Oliver was shot eight times and a woman was shot in both legs. He said Oliver and Adams were “walking down Zentz Avenue … and Mr. Oliver was struck” with eight bullets. The female victim “was up on her porch, and that is when she was shot in the legs.”

The woman told Krichbaum Thursday she was locking her security door at her home when she heard gunshots.

She said a male told her, “You need to get back in your house, and I said ‘Huh?’ And the next thing I knew, he was shooting, both of my legs,” she said. She said she was standing in her house, “so the bullets he used went through my security door.”

The woman said, “I don’t hate him, but I’ve been hurt ever since. I have marks that won’t leave.”

“I just want to say I’m going to pray for him, because you are taking lives that … I want to go when God calls me home, not because somebody took my life,” she said.

“From that day on till now, I still have a hard time sleeping,” she said. When she came back home from the hospital after being shot, “one of the bullets was over my bed,” she said. “I have a hard time sleeping because every noise wakes me up.”

The felonious assault conviction and shooting into a habitation were apparently both for shooting the woman.

The involuntary manslaughter was for killing Oliver. The charge started as aggravated murder, but was amended as part of Adams’ plea agreement.

In a press release, Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro stated that the plea agreement was reached “after issues arose surrounding a key piece of DNA evidence against the defendant. The decision to make a plea offer was made after input and consent of the victims and their families.

“We always prioritize the needs and concerns of the victims and their families in our prosecutorial decisions,” she stated.

DeFabio filed a motion for sanctions against the prosecutor’s office on Thursday that mentioned that DNA analysis was conducted on a cigarette butt found at a location pertinent to the case.

The analysis was completed in August 2024 and the Youngstown Police Department received the analysis in August 2024, the filing states, but the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office did not provide the results until Jan. 17, 2025.

The evidence was going to be helpful to the prosecution, and the defense was going to ask that the evidence be suppressed, “due to the late date of its disclosure,” the filing states.

As of Monday, there were still DNA documents not yet turned over to the defense, the filing states. The filing asked Krichbaum to prohibit the prosecution from using the DNA evidence at trial as a result of issues.

Jeanine Bonilla, Oliver’s mother, also gave a victim impact statement, saying Adams’ actions “made me feel hate for the first time in my life. I thank God because he has now taken that hate out of my life, and I am on my way to forgive him.”

Bonilla said knowing how many times her son was shot, “That’s a hard impact on a mother. I know my son wasn’t perfect. He was a good person in his heart. He just, after his dad died, went to the streets,” she said. “I just wanted to let you know, it’s destroyed me.”

She said he was her second son, and her first son died “of some strange disease. I have no sons now.”

Adams, of Tyrell Street, was set for trial Monday if he had not reached a plea agreement.

Juhasz told Krichbaum he thinks the resolution of the case was acceptable because it “resolves any uncertainties and gives the victims the closure they need.”