A Scioto County teen received a life sentence without parole eligibility for the next 27 years following his conviction for murder and felonious assault after a 5-day jury trial which concluded on July 26, 2024. 18-year-old Aden Greene faced six felony counts, including two counts of murder and four counts of felonious assault stemming from a fatal shooting which occurred almost exactly one year prior to the end of his trial. Greene’s trial took place in the Scioto County Court of Common Pleas General Division and was presided over by the Honorable Judge Mark Kuhn.
Just prior to 1:00am on July 29, 2023, Scioto County deputies were dispatched to a residence in Rigrish Addition off State Route 335 near Minford following emergency calls reporting a shooting at a house party. When deputies arrived, they were led to the back porch where they found the victim of the shooting, later identified as 20-year-old Nathaniel (“Nate”) Chase McQuinley, unresponsive having suffered multiple gunshot wounds. Scioto County Sheriff deputies immediately took over his care and attempted to provide life saving measures but were unsuccessful. Minford EMS soon arrived on scene and applied a cardiac monitor to Mr. McQuinley but were unable to find any cardiac activity. Following consultation with on-call physicians at Southern Ohio Medical Center, Nathaniel McQuinley was pronounced deceased on scene.
Witness accounts were taken in the hours and days following the shooting. An investigation spearheaded by Detective Sergeant Jodi Conkel of the Scioto County Sheriff’s Office with assistance from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation was also immediately launched. These eyewitness accounts and investigation quickly identified Aden Greene, then 17-years-old, as the individual who had shot and killed Mr. McQuinley. The accounts and investigation revealed that Greene fled the scene immediately following the shooting, and a manhunt ensued along with the continued investigation. Greene was charged via a complaint initially filed in the Scioto County Juvenile Court on August 1, 2023. Following the receipt of notice that Greene had retained counsel, the Scioto County Prosecutor’s Office reached out to demand his immediate surrender. Greene turned himself in to the Juvenile Court and the Scioto County Sheriff’s representatives on August 3, 2023.
Along with the filing of the initial complaint, the Scioto County Prosecutor’s Office filed a Motion to Transfer Jurisdiction, requesting that Greene be tried as an adult. Greene’s case then proceeded through the Juvenile Court, which decided on October 24, 2023 that Greene would indeed face trial as an adult. Greene’s case was then sent to the General Division which handles all felony adult matters. During the litigation of the case, Greene filed a notice to the Court indicating that he intended to claim self-defense at trial.
After a continuance of the originally scheduled April trial date, Greene’s case proceeded to a jury trial which started on July 22, 2024. The State of Ohio’s case was presented by Scioto County Prosecutor Shane Tieman and Assistant County Prosecutor Matthew Loesch. Mr. Tieman and Mr. Loesch were further assisted by Assistant County Prosecutor Jay Willis, who was lead counsel on the matter while it was at the Juvenile Court. Greene was represented by Columbus attorneys Peter Scranton and Don Olsen. The prosecution presented 23 witnesses, 15 of which were party attendees, over four days, and introduced over 100 exhibits. The defense called two witnesses along with Defendant Greene. The evidence at trial was that a large house party starting in the evening of July 28, 2023 was hosted by recent high school graduates while their parents were out of town. While the exact number was impossible to determine, it is estimated that this party was attended by 100 or more juveniles and young adults. Testimony indicated that most of the party goers were drinking alcohol, and a large number were also smoking marijuana. Greene, 17 years old at the time, went to the party armed with a .45 caliber semi-automatic Glock handgun. Greene was showing off the handgun to various party-goers through the course of the evening. Witnesses also testified that Greene was drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana-filled cigars, commonly referred to as “blunts”, during the course of the evening.
At some point an altercation between Greene and another party-goer occurred after an argument over another juvenile who had been pushed into a backyard pool. Testimony from witnesses was that the argument progressed into a brief physical altercation, although no witnesses indicated that any punches were thrown. Following this altercation, the testimony was almost entirely consistent that this individual turned and walked away from Greene. Rather than allow this individual to walk away from the altercation without any further incident, Greene chose to follow him with his gun drawn and pointed to the back of his head. Witnesses indicated that they saw Greene “rack” a round in the chamber of his gun during this time and stated that he was making confrontational statements to this individual.
As the gun was pointed at this individual’s head, Nate McQuinley intervened and struck Greene in the head with what most witnesses indicated was some type of bottle. The threatened individual was a friend of Mr. McQuinley’s who had travelled to the party with him. Greene then quickly turned his weapon towards Mr. McQuinley and fired multiple shots in his direction. Mr. McQuinley suffered three gunshot wounds, including a fatal wound which entered the rear of his right shoulder and travelled in a back-to-front trajectory and impacted both his lungs and his heart. Testimony from the forensic pathologist was that the fatal wound was non-survivable. One of the bullets also struck another party-goer in the lower leg, resulting in injury and an additional felonious assault charge for Greene. Another party-goer indicated that he suffered a bullet graze injury to his hand, which also led to an additional felonious assault count.
On the witness stand, Greene admitted to being the shooter but claimed that he only fired due to fear of impending death. Greene tried to claim that many individuals were armed at the party, testimony which was refuted by every witness who took the stand at trial. Greene also attempted to claim that he was struck three times by a hard object, testimony which once again was directly contradicted by the other witnesses at trial. Greene admitted to fleeing the scene and travelling to Cincinnati following the shooting. Greene also admitted that he had disposed of the murder weapon shortly after the shooting. The jury rejected Greene’s claims of self-defense, finding him guilty of Nate McQuinley’s murder, two counts of felonious assault relating to Mr. McQuinley, and another count of felonious assault related to the party-goer struck by a bullet in the leg. Greene was found not guilty of the felonious assault count related to the graze injury to a party-goer’s hand. Judge Kuhn then imposed a life sentence in the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections on Greene, with no possibility of parole for at least 27 years.
“This is a tragic and senseless case which has devasted Nathaniel McQuinley’s family and shaken many young men and women in this community and their parents,” said Scioto County Prosecutor Shane Tieman. “I want to once again extend my deepest condolences to Nate’s loved ones and hope that Mr. Greene’s conviction and sentence provides them some small measure of closure as they continue to mourn his death. Self-defense is never appropriate when someone makes the choices that Aden Greene made on that fateful evening.”
Mr. Tieman and the Scioto County Prosecutor’s Office extends its deepest thanks to the upstanding citizens who served as jurors in this emotionally charged and difficult trial. Mr. Tieman also thanks the Scioto County Sheriff’s Office and the young men and women who came forward to give their accounts of the evening in question. Mr. Tieman concludes by stating the following, “From this tragedy, there are many lessons that the youth of this County can take going forward to never let something like this happen again. Guns and alcohol don’t mix, its illegal, dumb, and incredibly dangerous. Same goes with weed. Carrying a gun doesn’t make you cool and it certainly doesn’t make you tough. Guns are deadly weapons and are always to be treated with the utmost respect and care. Be careful with every decision that you make because those decisions can have grave consequences, including the loss of life and freedom. Nate McQuinley would be alive today had any of these lessons been followed. Learn from this and do not let his death be in vain.”
