After man is arrested for Middletown shooting, he points police to teen now charged with murder

Bond was set at $500,000 Friday in Middletown Municipal Court for Dhameer Scott, on of two people charged with murder in the shooting death of John Booker on Monday in Middletown. LAUREN PACK/STAFF

Bond was set at $500,000 Friday in Middletown Municipal Court for Dhameer Scott, on of two people charged with murder in the shooting death of John Booker on Monday in Middletown. LAUREN PACK/STAFF

A Middletown man and a 16-year-old boy are both incarcerated and charged with murder in Monday night’s shooting death in the city.

The teen was booked into the Butler County Juvenile Detention Center at about 4 p.m. Thursday. He appeared in juvenile court Friday morning had was ordered to say in the detention center until his pre-trial hearing on May 28, according Rob Clevenger, court administrator.

Police say the teen confessed to shooting John Booker, 36, at a Yankee Road residence in what police say was a dispute over $10.

READ MORE: Police investigation: Dispute over $10 leads to deadly Middletown shooting

Dhameer Haamid Scott, 24, was arrested Wednesday and charged with murder after the incident. Scott will continue to face a murder charge because he allegedly gave the gun to the teen and they fled out of state together. He was arraigned Friday in Middletown Municipal Court, where Judge James Sherron set bond at $500,000.

Police were called at 7:44 p.m. Monday to the 1400 block of Yankee Road, where they found Booker seriously injured from gunfire. He was taken to a local hospital, where he later died.

Booker’s mother called 911 and told dispatchers that Scott shot Booker. Police said Thursday that Booker took $10 from a shelf in the home his mother shared with Scott’s father, which started the argument that led to the shooting.

But further investigation led to police to request the juvenile to take a lie detector test which he failed, police said.

There was some confusion during Scott’s arraignment because the complaint read in court had not been updated with the allegation of the teen as the shooter.

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Herbert Haas, Scott’s attorney, said his client turned himself into to authorities when he learned they were looking for him and provided information about the incident to detectives.

“We now know that the juvenile went in, denied what happened, denied that he was involved, offered to take a lie detector test, failed and then essentially admitted to be a shooter,” Haas said.

“My personal observation is, it is my client who when he found out he was being looked for, called me, and we turned him in immediately. And during the process of turning him in, I gave valuable information that the juvenile was the actual shooter and that my client had absolutely no involvement in planning something like this, in providing a weapon, in giving the juvenile a weapon, and also my client did not start the battle over the ridiculous amount of money.”

The teen’s attorney, Lawrence Hawkins III said, that “there is a lot of evidence pointing in a lot of different directions. I really need to go through the actual evidence to see it all. I am interested to see the actual witness statements because some seem to be conflicting.”

MORE: Middletown shooting injures 17-year-old girl

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