Jesse Jones, 36, a Black man from Middletown, was fatally shot in the early hours of June 16, 2025, in the parking lot outside Bar II on Elliott Drive. Police were called just before 3 a.m., arriving to find multiple people shot; Jesse Jones, 36, died from his wounds, and three others were injured. Authorities said the violence followed a fight that spilled into the lot after the bar closed, turning a noisy argument into a burst of gunfire that sent people running for cover.
In the days that followed, investigators identified Jesse Jones, 36, as the person who was killed, and they traced the confrontation back to those moments after closing, when tempers flared and fists gave way to bullets. A community already reeling from recent shootings learned that the incident was not random, that there had been a dispute, and that detectives were sorting through witness statements, shell casings, and surveillance footage to map the final minutes before Jesse Jones, 36, was gunned down. Online memorials marked the date and place of his death while neighbors and loved ones waited for word of arrests.
Arrests came within the week. Police announced that Jerome Collier, 51, of Hamilton, had been taken into custody and charged with murder in the killing of Jesse Jones, 36. A day earlier, officers arrested Dy'Shonna Goins, 28, of Dayton, on a felonious assault charge connected to the same shooting. Both were booked into the Middletown City Jail without incident as the investigation continued.
By late June, a Butler County grand jury handed up a sweeping set of indictments tied to the case. Collier, already facing murder, was among the defendants indicted on a dozen counts stemming from the parking-lot gunfire that killed Jesse Jones, 36, and wounded three others. Goins was also indicted, and both later pleaded not guilty as a judge raised their bonds. Prosecutors described a chaotic scene born of a parking-lot fight; defense attorneys reserved comment while discovery began to flow. Court records and local reporting indicate that, as of the latest updates in June 2025, the case was moving through pretrial hearings with no trial date set publicly at that time.
Public records and local coverage consistently identify the victim as Jesse Jones, 36, of Middletown, with some reports using the name “Jessie James Jones” in connection with the same June 16, 2025, shooting outside Bar II. Regardless of the spelling variations, the narrative remains starkly the same: Jesse Jones, 36, was killed amid a post-closing altercation, and two suspects—Collier and Goins—were arrested and indicted in connection with the violence that ended his life.
