Jayce ONeal was 17 when she was shot and killed on July 12, 2021, after an argument with 16-year-old Marizah Thomas outside Thomas’ home on Ridgebury Drive on Columbus’ Far West Side. Medics took ONeal to OhioHealth Doctors Hospital in critical condition; she was later pronounced dead.

Thomas reportedly fled in a green 2010 Toyota Corolla and was arrested the next morning after a citywide alert led police to an apartment near Forest Street and Berkeley Road. An arrest warrant charged her with delinquent murder; prosecutors moved to transfer the case to adult court under Ohio law for 16-year-olds charged with murder. Friends held a memorial vigil for ONeal at Hilliard Bradley High School, where she had played tennis, and she was remembered as friendly and outgoing by her family.

The trial record notes Thomas argued self-defense under Ohio’s stand your ground law; the jury acquitted her of murder but convicted her of tampering with evidence, with sentencing on that charge to be handled in juvenile court. Did anyone in the community know Jayce or have information about the night of July 12, 2021?