His 10-year-old daughter wiped away tears. The girl was at the Hamilton residence on Feb. 21, 2022 when her uncle, Jason Glenn, 47, was fatally shot. She was not injured and rode with her father to the hospital for treatment of his wounds.
Prosecutors say both brothers fired shots. Drugs and mental illness played a big role in the fatal gunplay, according to prosecutors.
Glenn pleaded guilty last month to a lesser charge of first-degree involuntary manslaughter with a one-year gun specification. He was indicted in March 2022 for murder and having weapons under disability in the shooting death of Jason Glenn in the yard of their Summer Street home. At the time of indictment, he was serving a prison term for a drug charge in Hamilton County.
Justin Glenn was found incompetent to stand trial in the summer of 2022, but in July 2023, after 11 months of treatment, Stephens found him competent based on a court-ordered forensic psychiatric report.
Stephens sentenced Justin Glenn to eight years in prison — one year on the gun specification and seven years for the involuntary manslaughter charge. He faced a maximum of 12 years.
“Brother against brother. My understanding from the circumstances from both sides this was not an act of hatred or anger or malice,” Stephens said.
Prosecutors and the defense said both brothers were under the influence of illegal drugs at the time of the incident and Justin Glenn had a mental illness leading to paranoia.
“My brother lost his life because of me, because of the paranoia,” Justin Glenn said to the judge.
Defense attorney David Washington said his client is “a nice guy who has to get a grip on some substance abuse issues ... the person we have seen over the past few months is the real him.”
Janice Glenn said neither of her sons should have had a gun that day.
“I realize that now because I didn’t see things I probably should have,” the mother said.
The grandmother is now raising Justin’s daughter, whom she says will now be her focus.
She was still crying while leaving the courtroom, “they were brothers. They loved each other.”
According to the Hamilton police report, “[Justin] and his brother got into a physical altercation that led to the defendant shooting his brother, and firing several more shots in the air. [Justin] then fled the scene and ended up at the hospital to seek medical attention.”
Justin Glenn drove himself to the hospital on the night of the homicide while bleeding from the head after gunfire in the yard. He told dispatchers, “my brother shot me.”
Jason Glenn suffered gunshot wounds and died on the way to the hospital.
Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser said last month after the plea hearing that cases of fratricide are unusual.
“I am sure there was a psychiatric issue going on, but not sufficient to meet the standard of insanity,” Gmoser said. “I didn’t have a problem trying the case because he (Justin) was the initiator of a confrontation. Both brothers reacted to the confrontation with guns, however the fault ultimately has to lie with the person who started all of this and that happens to be the defendant.”
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