CINCINNATI (WKRC) - A judge sentenced a local man who allowed a four-year-old to shoot himself with a gun. The drama played out in a Butler County courtroom on Tuesday.
The case stemmed from the spring of 2022, when a 26-year-old man brought his little brother to a Middletown park. When the boy ran back to the car to get a water, he instead found his older brother's loaded handgun and shot himself.
Eight months later, Yvonte Glover stood before a judge to get sentenced.
“An accident like this can happen,” said Judge Noah E. Powers II, of the Butler County Common Pleas Court, as he snapped his fingers loudly, “Like that!”
Judge Powers spoke to Glover before he imposed his sentence. Glover was contrite with the court.
“I’ll never let anything like this happen again,” he said. “Because I’m never going to own a gun again.”
The judge sentenced Glover to two years probation, after Glover avoided the possibility of years in prison by pleading down from Child Endangering to a lesser charge.
“This fellow is going to live with the fact that he engaged in conduct that allowed somebody to get hurt really bad, obviously,” said Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser. “And that is punishment in and of itself.”
Prosecutor Gmoser said he's okay with the sentence, but feels the legislature made a mistake when it passed a law that made it legal to carry a loaded firearm in the passenger compartment of your car.
Local 12 posed to Gmoser that some gun advocates believe they need their guns with them, loaded, for protection.
“I know they’re saying that,” he replied. “And I’m saying keep them out of the cars!’”
But the fact is, there are currently no laws federally, or in the state of Ohio, that require safe storage of handguns in or out of a car.
“Something needs to be done about gun violence here in our state,” State Rep. Jessica Miranda (D-Forest Park) testified before the Government Oversight Committee in June, when she introduced House Bill 175.
The bill would, among other things, allow law enforcement to charge someone with a crime if a gun is not locked-up and then is taken and used in a crime.
“Maybe we can get somewhere in this state and actually do something to curb the gun violence that we’re seeing,” Representative Miranda told Local 12 via Zoom. But it will be an uphill battle.
Local 12 spoke by phone with the chairman of the committee where it was introduced.
“What’s the likelihood that it gets out of committee?” Local 12 asked State Rep. Bob Peterson, (R-Sabina).
“In its current form,” he replied, “Not very likely.”
Representative Peterson said people should lock up their guns when they're unattended, but it shouldn't be compelled by law.
"Without legislating it,” Local 12 asked. “How do you compel people to lock up their guns?"
"That's something we've been trying to figure out for decades or centuries," he replied.
Representative Miranda's bill would also provide tax incentives to people for locking up their unattended guns. And it would provide funds for gun safety education. Right now, the bill would only apply to guns left unattended in homes. Miranda said, though, after speaking with Local 12, she may amend the bill to include safe storage in cars.
And a quick update on the condition of the little boy who shot himself with his brother's gun -- the boy's mother told Local 12 the bullet miraculously didn't hit any vital organs and he is back to normal.