On the morning of May 29, 2025, Darion Jones, a 19-year-old male from Dayton, was found dead inside an SUV near the intersection of West Grand and Lexington avenues, by Liberation Park. Neighbors had reported suspicious activity around 9:45 a.m., including gunfire, people running, and an abandoned vehicle. Responding officers discovered Darion Jones at the scene, and the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office later identified him as the victim as detectives opened a homicide investigation.
Detectives pieced together the hours before the killing and, according to court records, learned that Darion Jones had been with 20-year-old Danny Demetrius Gladden Jr. and another man. An affidavit stated that Darion Jones was in the passenger seat when Gladden Jr. shot him in the back of the head; investigators also alleged the men returned and tried to scrub the SUV with bleach. Within days, authorities took Gladden Jr. into custody; jail records show he was booked the night of June 10 on suspicion of murder.
Prosecutors later secured an indictment charging Gladden Jr. with two counts of murder and two counts of felonious assault, along with tampering with evidence and having weapons under disability. The indictment placed the fatal shooting of Darion Jones on Lexington Avenue around 9:30 a.m. that day and tied the bleach cleanup to efforts to hide what happened. Gladden Jr. was scheduled for arraignment in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court.
The investigation also reached into Columbus, where detectives said Gladden Jr.’s father, Danny Gladden Sr., helped hide his son and a rifle believed to have been used in the killing. A grand jury indicted Gladden Sr. on two counts of obstructing justice and a misdemeanor count of aggravated menacing after police alleged he harbored the suspect while officers were closing in. As of those filings, police had named no additional charged co-suspects in the vehicle with Darion Jones.
