Third person pleads in deadly Hamilton bar shooting

A third man charged in a deadly Hamilton bar shooting last summer has entered a guilty plea.

Cory Cook II, 23, of 9th Street in Hamilton, was scheduled to be in Butler County Common Pleas Court today for a pre-trial hearing but that changed when he accepted a plea deal.

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Cook was one of four people charged in the gun violence outside Doubles Bar on the city's west side that killed Kalif Goens and injured seven others. He was charged with felonious assault, a second degree felony, but entered a guilty plea to attempted felonious assault with a one year gun specification.

Judge Greg Stephens set sentencing for February. Cook faces up to four years in prison.

Credit: Nick Graham

Credit: Nick Graham

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Last month, two others charged in the bar shooting also entered guilty pleas.

Rodrick Curtis Jr., 20, of North 7th Street, was charged with felonious assault and having weapons under disability. He accepted a plea deal to aggravated assault that has a mandatory three-year jail term for the firearms specification associated with it.

Mondale Goens, 21, of Maple Ave., was charged with two counts of felonious assault in the shooting that killed his brother. He plead guilty aggravated assault that has a mandatory three-year jail term for the firearms specification associated with it.

Both men face up to 4½ years in prison and are scheduled to be sentenced by Stephens later this month.

That leaves only the case of Cornell McKennelly II pending of those charged in the July 24 shooting.

McKennelly, 38, of Franklin Street in Hamilton, is charged with murder and having weapons under disability, for allegedly shooting and killing Kalif Goens. His trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 31.

Days after the shooting at Doubles Bar, two men were killed in a drive-by shooting along Central Avenue, which was a murder for hire, according to court records.