Sentencing set for teen found guilty of murder in Liberty Twp. park shootout

Fairfield High School football standout died after incident last summer.

A Cincinnati teenager found guilty of murder and felonious assault for a shootout last summer in a Liberty Twp. park will be sentenced this week.

Zyquon Moody, now 19, of Woodland Hills Drive, was convicted earlier this month after a weeklong trial in Butler County Common Pleas Court for the June 10 deadly shooting of 18-year-old Antaun Hill Jr. A Fairfield High School football standout, Hill had planned to play at Independence Community College in Kansas.

Moody was indicted a week after the shooting by a grand jury for murder with a gun specification and two counts of felonious assault.

He was found guilty as charged on May 7 after the jury deliberated several hours following closing arguments.

Judge Jennifer McElfresh sat Moody’s sentence for May 20. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 18 years.

Romel Velasquez, 18, of Cincinnati, was sentenced in October to 24 months in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated assault with a gun specification for his role in the shootout at Liberty Park on Yankee Road.

Velasquez confessed he had a gun and made a choice to go to this “zone of danger” with that gun after a social media announcement about a “big fight,” according to prosecutors. Velasquez shot Moody, according to the investigation.

Butler County Sheriff’s detectives and Fairfield Twp. police say the incident began with a June 7 theft of Hill’s cellphone and cash in Fairfield Twp., and that two groups met June 10 to fight in the park. Gunfire was reported at around 10 p.m.

In addition to Hill and Moody, Zyshaun Johnson, 19, of Cincinnati, also was shot, and he recovered.

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