Covid delays OTR mass shooting trial

CINCINNATI (WXIX) - COVID-19 has delayed the start of Monday’s jury trial for two men charged in an Over-the-Rhine mass shooting that Cincinnati police say injured eight innocent bystanders.

One of the lawyers involved in the case has COVID, according to Hamilton County Judge Leslie Ghiz’s bailiff.

The trial might start later this week for Diablo McCoats, 30, and Jarvis Barnes, 35.

McCoats faces a maximum sentence of up to 91 years in prison if convicted on all counts, prosecutors have said. Barnes could serve up to 80 years, prosecutors have said.

They are accused of firing seven shots on Main Street in August 2022.

McCoats, 30, also was shot and wounded by a Cincinnati police officer whose actions were described at the time by the prosecutor as “heroic.”

Coats was shot in one of his legs and booked into jail once he was released from the hospital.

McCoats and Barnes were indicted last year on several counts of felonious assault and discharging a firearm on or near prohibited premises as well as one count each of having weapons under disability.

Both are convicted felons prohibited from having guns.

Barnes was convicted in March 2019 of assaulting a Hamilton County deputy sheriff in 2018, court records show.

He is at the county jail in lieu of a $250,000 cash bond.

McCoats is held on a $750,000 cash bond. He was convicted of drug trafficking in Hamilton County in 2016.

Bullets started flying on Main Street early Aug. 7, 2022 after a large fight broke out between two groups over contested territory, according to Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters.

Seven men and a woman were caught in the crossfire, he has said. They were all treated and released from area hospitals.

It was a “miracle” that no one died, Deters said in September 2022.

The mass shooting prompted Cincinnati police to step up their presence on Main Street and at The Banks.

Parking restrictions also were announced on Main Street at night and before dawn.

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