An Ohio appeals court has upheld a man’s convictions in the June 2024 killing of a woman in Middletown, whose remains were later found in a curbside trash can.
In a March 30 opinion, a three-judge panel of Ohio’s 12th District Court of Appeals rejected Brandon Davis’ claims of due process violations and insufficient evidence during the trial. However, the panel determined that the judge in the case made unconstitutional findings related to sentencing.
Davis must return before Butler County Common Pleas Judge Kelly Heile for a new sentencing hearing.
Christopher Pagan, Davis’ appellate attorney, did not immediately respond to a phone call from The Enquirer.
Davis, now 47, was convicted at the end of a five-day trial in February 2025 on multiple charges, including aggravated murder. He was originally sentenced to 44½ years to life in prison. The case relied heavily on an accomplice’s confession, along with testimony from two informants who offered Davis legal advice while they were held together at the Butler County Jail.
What happened to Asiah Slone
Prosecutors said Davis shot 35-year-old Asiah Slone once in the head while she slept on the floor of a home on Yankee Road in Middletown, then instructed another man to shoot her again.
A friend discovered Slone’s skeletal remains in a garbage bin in a nearby alley on July 1, 2024. Investigators believe she was shot twice in the head and killed in early June. Her body was found more than two weeks after Middletown police launched a missing-person investigation at the request of her family.
Ten days later, Perry Hart, now 60, admitted to shooting Slone at Davis’ direction. Hart testified that he woke up to a gunshot and saw Davis pointing a gun at him.
Hart said Davis then ordered him to take Slone to the basement and shoot her, threatening to kill everyone in the house if he refused. Hart kept the weapon and later handed it over to investigators on July 11, 2024, the same day he confessed.
According to prosecutors, Hart did not request anything in return for his confession, though he later received a plea deal that reduced his charge to involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to at least 17 years in prison.
Investigators found blood matching Slone’s DNA leading from the living room to the basement, and DNA collected from the gun matched Hart. However, no forensic, video, or cellphone evidence directly linked Davis to the crime.
Two other individuals present at the house that night also told authorities that Davis was there, but only one claimed he was involved in the killing.
Case relied on jail informants
Authorities later relied on two jailhouse informants who claimed Davis confessed to the killing while awaiting trial. One informant was a disbarred attorney and convicted felon, while the other was a seasoned informant with a prior conviction in a 1993 homicide.
Davis maintained his innocence during the trial and repeated that claim in a May 2025 interview with The Enquirer at a state prison in Chillicothe. He said he was not at the Yankee Road house the night of the killing and alleged that Middletown police targeted him after unsuccessfully trying to prosecute him for burglary earlier in 2024.
“It makes no sense,” Davis said about the jury’s verdict.
In his appeal, Davis argued that his convictions were based entirely on inconsistent testimony from unreliable witnesses. He also highlighted the lack of forensic evidence directly tying him to the crime.
The appeals court rejected those arguments, stating that the overall weight of the evidence supported the jury’s decision.
“The jury could still conclude that [Davis] shot Slone, ordered everyone to swear allegiance to him, and then directed Hart to shoot Slone a second time,” Judge Robin Piper wrote.
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