AKRON, Ohio — An Akron man previously convicted in a 2022 Cuyahoga Falls shooting that left one man dead has been sentenced to life in prison.
Twenty-nine-year-old Deair Wray (also known as Deair Johnson) learned his fate Thursday, with Summit County Common Pleas Judge Kathryn Michael ruling the defendant be eligible for parole after serving 29 years behind bars. A jury earlier this month found Wray guilty of seven felony charges, including three counts of murder with a firearm.
Late in the evening of May 26, 2022, Cuyahoga Falls police found two people shot inside a home on Forest Glen Drive. Twenty-three-year-old Giovanni Stanford had been hit several times in the head and body and later died at Summa Akron City Hospital, while a 22-year-old female victim survived after taking a bullet to the leg.
According to investigators, Wray and the woman have a child together, and Wray had fired his gun through the home's window. A $35,000 reward was offered for information leading to his capture, and he was finally arrested by U.S. Marshals in August of last year.
A grand jury had also previously indicted 33-year-old Jameir McDowell with Stanford's murder, but he eventually pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and received a two-year prison sentence. Additionally, 33-year-old Durell McDowell also admitted to obstruction and was released after serving a year in the Summit County Jail. Both testified against Wray at his trial.
Wray will serve his sentence at the Lorain Correctional Institution, court records indicate.