Charles Eggers was a 23-year-old White man from Cleveland, Ohio, who was remembered by loved ones as funny and kind. A former student of Max Hayes school, his death left his family heartbroken. "I miss my brother so much," one relative shared. "He didn't deserve to be gun down like that."
On the afternoon of March 24, 2023, officers with the Cleveland Division of Police responded to a call about an unresponsive man in the city's Brooklyn Centre neighborhood.
At around 2:40 p.m., they arrived at the intersection of Bradwell Avenue and Pearl Road, where they discovered Charles's body under the West 25th Street Bridge. An investigation determined he had been fatally shot in the head.
The investigation led authorities to two suspects: Aaron Parsons, 36, and Danielle Mayne-Hicks, 27. Police alleged that Parsons and Mayne-Hicks had approached Charles near the railroad tracks under the bridge, assaulted him, and that Parsons then shot him. Parsons was apprehended on April 5, 2023.
Investigators also connected Parsons to another violent crime that had occurred in the same area a month earlier. On February 21, 2023, Parsons and two accomplices allegedly kidnapped a 59-year-old double amputee at gunpoint. They were accused of forcing the man to drive to the railroad tracks, where they beat him, threw him onto the tracks, and left him to die. The assailants discarded the man's wheelchair in a ravine and set his vehicle on fire with his prosthetic legs still inside. The victim managed to escape and alert authorities.
For his role in Charles's death, Parsons was charged with aggravated murder, murder, aggravated robbery, robbery, kidnapping, tampering with evidence, and having weapons under disability. Mayne-Hicks was charged with aggravated robbery, robbery, and kidnapping. For the February attack, Parsons faced additional charges of attempted murder, aggravated robbery, kidnapping, arson, and grand theft. Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael C. O'Malley called Parsons a "barbaric predator" and stated that the death penalty was being considered.
Aaron Parsons was convicted for the murder of Charles Eggers and related offenses. In February 2024, a judge sentenced him to 33 years in prison.
