Families of two victims filled a Hamilton County courtroom as a judge sentenced Malik Blanchard in shootings that happened six days apart in Westwood and English Woods.
CINCINNATI, Ohio — A 24-year-old Cincinnati man was sentenced Friday to 47 years to life in prison after pleading guilty in two separate killings from last June, including the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old boy and a 22-year-old woman six days apart.
The sentence closed one criminal case but did little to ease the grief on display in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, where relatives of both victims spoke directly about lives cut short and families they said were permanently changed. Judge Christopher Wagner imposed the sentence after Malik Blanchard pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and one count of felonious assault. The case drew attention not only because of the short time between the shootings, but because prosecutors said Blanchard had been released from prison only months earlier.
Prosecutors said the first shooting happened June 3, 2025, outside a home on Percy Avenue in Westwood. Investigators said an argument began near the house, and Blanchard pulled out a firearm with a flashlight attachment as people scattered. Jay’Shawn Antonio Cornelious, 17, ran toward the home and was struck by gunfire as he tried to get inside. A representative for his family later told the court the teenager had a future built around his skill with cars and his hands. Cornelious was a student at Hughes STEM High School, and relatives said the loss reached through every part of their family. Six days later, prosecutors said, Blanchard was involved in another violent encounter at an apartment complex on Westwood Northern Boulevard before the second killing unfolded.
According to prosecutors, the June 9 shooting began after Blanchard got into a fight with several people outside an apartment in English Woods at about 2:50 a.m. They said he then went to a female friend’s apartment, got a .22-caliber scoped rifle and moved through the building hallway. Treasure Aika Thomas, 22, was inside a nearby apartment, lying on a bed in the living room, when prosecutors said Blanchard forced his way in and opened fire. Thomas was killed, and her boyfriend was wounded but survived. Prosecutors have said neither Thomas nor the wounded man had been involved in the earlier fight. In court, relatives described Thomas as a young woman with energy, goals and a presence that brightened a room. Her mother wrote that she would never be the same again.
The two cases moved along separate tracks at first. Prosecutor Connie Pillich’s office said Blanchard was arrested June 9 in the English Woods shooting, and while he was already jailed in that case, a grand jury later indicted him in the earlier Westwood killing of Cornelious. In the June 3 case, prosecutors said another child, a 12-year-old boy, was with Cornelious when shots were fired but was not hit. The prosecutor’s office said the killings were not connected to each other except through the same defendant. Court records and local reporting also laid out a longer history of violent conduct dating back to Blanchard’s juvenile years, including prior adjudications and a 2018 commitment to the Ohio Department of Youth Services for aggravated robbery. He was later transferred to the adult prison system and released in April 2025.
That timeline became one of the central facts hanging over Friday’s sentencing. Prosecutors said Blanchard was out of prison only about three months before the June shootings. He took a plea deal on April 1, shortly before trial, and several charges and specifications were dismissed as part of the agreement. In the Cornelious case, he had faced charges that included murder, felonious assault and improper discharge of a firearm into a habitation. In the Thomas case, he had been indicted on aggravated murder, murder, aggravated burglary, felonious assault and improper discharge charges. By pleading guilty to two murder counts and one felonious assault count, he avoided trial while still facing a decadeslong sentence. Under the judge’s sentence, he will remain imprisoned for decades before any possible parole review.
The hearing itself reflected the depth of the damage left behind. Family members from both sides spoke in court about birthdays, daily routines and ordinary calls and visits that are now gone. Anthony Thomas, a relative of Treasure Thomas, said Blanchard had destroyed two families. Cornelious’ mother said her son was killed for no reason. Judge Wagner called the crimes an unwarranted example of reckless violence and told the families he hoped they could find some measure of justice in the proceeding, even if the day itself was one they would rather forget. Blanchard apologized at one point, but the hearing turned tense after relatives spoke and emotions rose in the courtroom. The scene underscored how the sentence marked an end in court, but not an end to the losses described by the victims’ families.
As of Friday, the criminal case ended with a prison term of 47 years to life. The next milestone is any future parole eligibility review, still decades away, while the victims’ families continue to live with the aftermath now laid out in open court.
Author note: Last updated April 12, 2026.