Source: United States Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
CINCINNATI – A jury found a local man guilty on all counts for crimes related to two murders in Cincinnati during the summer of 2021.
Jamal Binford, 33, of Dallas and Cincinnati, was convicted of five counts as charged in a second superseding indictment. The verdict was announced yesterday afternoon following a trial that began on Jan. 15 before Senior U.S. District Judge Michael R. Barrett.
According to court documents and trial testimony, Binford purported to manage two co-defendants as boxers, presenting himself as a boxing manager helping young men he wanted to help off the streets. Instead, he directed them to sell fentanyl and marijuana and, after assisting the coconspirators following one murder, he directed a second murder.
Co-defendants Antwan Coach, Jr., 22, of Cincinnati, and Markel Hardy, 23, of Cincinnati, robbed and murdered Kamar Williams on July 5, 2021, in North College Hill. It is alleged Coach and Hardy robbed Mr. Williams of marijuana and a firearm and shot him to death.
In August 2021, all three defendants conspired to murder a second victim, Deonte Nuckols, in St. Bernard in connection with a narcotics conspiracy involving 400 grams or more of fentanyl and five kilograms or more of cocaine.
As the government outlined at trial, Binford paid the two other men to kill Mr. Nuckols, who had had been texting Binford that day about Binford paying a drug debt.
Binford was arrested in February 2023 at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
The narcotics conspiracy in this case includes 400 grams or more of fentanyl, five kilograms or more of cocaine, and 100 kilograms or more of marijuana.
Binford faces a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 20 years and up to life in prison for participating in the narcotics conspiracy, being an accessory after the fact, murder in connection with the drug trafficking conspiracy, use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, and use of a firearm to commit murder.
Kenneth L. Parker, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Daryl S. McCormick, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF); Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa A. Theetge; North College Hill Police Chief Ryan Schrand; and St. Bernard Police Chief Michael Simos announced the verdicts. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs of the Department’s Criminal Division also aided during the investigation.
Assistant United States Attorneys Ashley N. Brucato and OCDETF Deputy Criminal Chief Frederic C. Shadley represented the United States in this case.
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