Jury deliberating Sheffield Lake man's fate over July 2025 Vermilion shooting spree

ELYRIA — A two-day trial in Lorain County Common Pleas Court ended Wednesday with jurors being asked to consider whether there is enough evidence to convict a Sheffield Lake man of taking part in a series of drive-by shootings that terrified residents of two quiet residential streets in Vermilion last summer. "Common sense tells you Jacob Bray was involved in these shootings," Assistant Prosecutor Brian James told jurors during his closing argument Wednesday, capping off two full days of testimony. He asked them to find Bray guilty of felonious assault, improperly discharging a firearm at or into a habitation, discharging a firearm on or near a prohibited premises, tampering with evidence, improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle and improperly furnishing firearms to a minor, all felonies, plus firearms and drive-by shooting specifications. Bray, who pleaded not guilty, didn't testify in his own defense. Defense attorney Jason Harless rested his client's case without putting on any witnesses or presenting any evidence to the jury, saying the Prosecutor's Office hadn't met its burden to prove Bray, 19, of Sheffield Lake, guilty of any crimes. Harless told jurors not to do the Prosecutor's Office's work for it. "Common sense is a dangerous glue that the state wants you to use to put their case together," he said in his closing argument. Harless twice asked Judge Giovanna Bremke to acquit his client on all charges, alleging the Prosecutor's Office hadn't proved its case. Bremke denied both motions and gave the case to the jury, which deliberated briefly Wednesday afternoon before being sent home for the day. Deliberations resume today. No one was hurt during the three shootings on the morning of July 23, 2025, though a Brownhelm Station Road resident was traumatized, she and police officers testified, when a bullet whizzed through the wall of her home and showered her bedroom with sparks. The law doesn't require prosecutors to prove a motive for the shootings, James told the jury, only that he either committed them or was an accomplice to committing them. Brownhelm Station Road and Sunnyside Road residents who testified this week heard the shots, but couldn't identify the shooters or their vehicle. The first two shootings happened between 3 and 4 a.m. July 23, 2025, on the 3400 and 3800 blocks of Brownhelm Station Road and the third at about 5:30 a.m. on the 2300 block of Sunnyside Road. Vermilion found video footage at a home on Sunnyside Road showing an unknown vehicle passing by about 5:30 a.m. Three loud sounds, almost certainly gunshots, could be heard coming from the vehicle as it passed. A certified firearms instructor, Vermilion Police Chief Scott Holmes testified he was "fairly certain it was a gun." Bray's phone pinged on Sunnyside Road "at exactly the same time shots are being fired from his gun" there, James said in court. A shotgun shell witnesses found there matched Bray's shotgun, later forensics testing proved. Bray's former girlfriend Brittany Reeves also testified that she was talking to him on the phone that morning around the time of the Sunnyside Road shooting and heard "bangs ... like loud firecrackers popping" in the background. She said Bray told her he was shooting cans, and that he was with a 16-year-old boy who has been charged as an accomplice. A detective sergeant at the time of the shootings, Holmes testified that the boy's grandfather gave Vermilion police a tip that his grandson and Bray might have been involved in the shootings. The 16-year-old, whom The Chronicle-Telegram is not naming him due to his age, invoked his right to legal counsel and refused to answer any questions. He is being prosecuted in Lorain County Juvenile Court. Vermilion police then used Flock license plate reader cameras to track a black Ford F-150 registered to Bray's father driving into and out of Vermilion before and after the the shootings. Holmes got search warrants for Bray's home, which is also his father's auto mechanic shop, on North Abbe Road in Sheffield Lake. He served the search warrant there Aug. 1, 2025, with backup from the Lorain County SWAT Team and Sheffield Lake police. Bray returned to his home in the black Ford F-150. Asked where he had been the night of the shootings, Holmes said Bray lied. His story that he was asleep "wasn't making sense," Holmes testified. "Even (Bray's) father said it wasn't making sense." Holmes testified: "I told him I hadn't just randomly showed up at his residence with a SWAT team," and Bray led police to his guns — a semi-automatic rifle and a 20-gauge shotgun police already knew from ballistics evidence were used in the shootings, that were wrapped in blankets under piles of junk inside a broken down tow truck at Bray's father's auto shop. Bray's cellphone also was seized, and digital cellular data showed that it "pinged" off cell towers and wifi signals in Vermilion during the shootings, Holmes testified. Testing by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification conclusively linked the spent shell casings found at the shooting scenes to Bray's rifle and shotgun, though analysts couldn't say when the shots were fired or who fired them. Harless said the guns and truck might belong to his client, but that doesn't mean Bray did the shootings. Holmes agreed he couldn't prove Bray was driving the truck, though it was the same truck he pulled up in while police were serving the search warrant and "I have his phone at all the locations" where the shootings took place. Harless had other criticisms: There was no DNA testing done on the guns. The ammunition used in the AM-15 rifle is a very common brand. A possible third occupant of the suspect truck was never identified. Police never questioned the 16-year-old boy who allegedly was with Bray during the shootings. Just because Bray's phone was in Vermilion doesn't mean Bray was. Other people who had access to the Bray home, Bray's truck, Bray's father's auto shop and the guns were never questioned. Bray's father told his son to take the guns off the property because the elder Bray is a convicted felon and isn't allowed to have them, Harless suggested. Even then, Bray's guns "being used in the shooting doesn't put him in Vermilion that morning," Harless said. "All we know is, guns linked to Jacob Bray were used in a shooting in Vermilion." James told the jury it was ridiculous to suggest someone stole Bray's phone, guns and truck that morning, went out and shot up two neighborhoods in Vermilion. "The likelihood of all three (thefts) happening ... is astronomical," he said. And Bray and his attorney never mentioned his property being stolen "because it didn't happen," James said. Contact Dave O'Brien at 440-329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com