Travis Jackson admitted firing the fatal shots but disputed why he pulled the trigger.
DAYTON, Ohio — A Montgomery County jury rejected Travis Jackson’s self-defense claim and convicted him of murdering landscaper Tanner Staggs after weighing conflicting testimony about whether a complaint over grass clippings became an attack or an unjustified shooting.
The trial did not center on the identity of the shooter. Jackson admitted that he fired at Staggs on Sept. 18, 2025, and repeated his account in a 911 call and on the witness stand. The central question was why. Jackson said he acted in fear after being hit. Prosecutors said he became enraged over debris on his car and shot a worker whose crew had offered to clean it. Jurors deliberated for about seven hours before accepting the state’s account and finding Jackson guilty on all six charges.
Jackson’s own words formed one of the most important parts of the trial. In the emergency call placed after the shooting, he acknowledged firing at Staggs and said he had been attacked. “I was in fear of my life and from the attack and being struck,” Jackson said. Months later, he took the stand in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court and again described the encounter as a defensive response. His attorney, Anthony VanNoy, said Jackson initially asked that lawn debris be removed from his car. According to the defense, one worker appeared ready to get a blower, but Staggs and another crew member approached Jackson. VanNoy said Staggs struck Jackson, possibly with brass knuckles, leaving him woozy and afraid that more blows would follow.
Prosecutors told jurors that the evidence showed a much simpler and more troubling sequence. Staggs and other employees of Dunham’s Lawn Care LLC were working at a home on Indiana Avenue when grass clippings and dirt landed on Jackson’s parked vehicle. Jackson came outside to complain. Crew members said they told him they would use a blower to clear the car before leaving. The state said Jackson remained angry, drew a 9 mm handgun and fired several rounds. Two bullets struck Staggs. Dayton police officers responding at about 11:15 a.m. found the 22-year-old badly wounded near the sidewalk. Emergency crews took him to Miami Valley Hospital, but doctors could not save him.
The state relied heavily on people who were present during the confrontation. Several landscaping workers testified that they did not see Staggs hit Jackson. Their accounts challenged the defense claim that the shooting followed a sudden assault. Prosecutors also pointed to the ordinary solution the workers said they proposed: using a blower to remove the grass and dirt. Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Jacob Redden told the jury that the case started because of an argument over grass clippings on a car. He argued that Jackson’s response went far beyond anything the situation required. The prosecution treated the alleged brass knuckles as an unsupported explanation rather than reliable evidence of an imminent deadly threat.
The defense attacked the reliability of the state’s narrative and asked jurors not to reduce the case to a headline about lawn debris. VanNoy said Jackson was not a man who simply threatened Staggs and opened fire because he was upset about his vehicle. He argued that the confrontation changed when Jackson was allegedly struck. Under that account, the dispute over debris explained why the men spoke but not why Jackson fired. The defense maintained that fear, disorientation and the possibility of continued violence drove the decision. VanNoy also disputed reported statements attributed to Jackson before the shooting and told jurors that parts of the prosecution’s story were “unbelievable” and “unreliable.”
Jurors had an opportunity to examine the physical setting before deciding which account they believed. At the start of the trial May 18, they traveled to Indiana Avenue to view the location. The visit showed them the width of the street, the position of the nearby homes and the area where the landscaping crew had been working. Scene visits do not establish what witnesses saw or what a defendant believed, but they can help jurors understand distances and lines of sight described in testimony. After returning to court, the panel heard opening statements that presented the case in nearly opposite terms. The prosecution described anger followed by gunfire. The defense described a request followed by an attack and a frightened response.
Over the next several days, police officers and civilian witnesses described the investigation. Jurors heard about the arrival of first responders, Staggs’ injuries and statements gathered from the people at the scene. The 911 recording allowed them to hear Jackson’s explanation in his own voice shortly after the shots. Jackson then became one of only two witnesses called by the defense. His decision to testify placed him before the jurors who would judge both his credibility and his legal claim. Prosecutors could question him about the sequence, the gun and his stated fear. The panel ultimately had to compare his account with the testimony of workers who said they never saw the blow on which his defense depended.
Closing arguments ended May 21. Jurors began deliberations that afternoon, then recessed before returning around 8:30 a.m. the next day. By about 2 p.m. May 22, they had reached their verdict. Jackson placed his hand against his face as the clerk announced guilty findings. The most serious convictions were two counts of murder. The panel also convicted him of felonious assault with a deadly weapon, felonious assault causing serious physical harm, discharging a firearm on or near prohibited premises and involuntary manslaughter. The separate counts reflected different legal descriptions of the same fatal episode and the conduct surrounding it.
The verdict showed that jurors did not find Jackson’s asserted fear legally sufficient to excuse the shooting. Self-defense required more than proof that an argument occurred or that Jackson said he felt afraid. The panel had to consider whether he reasonably believed he faced imminent death or serious bodily harm and whether deadly force was justified under the circumstances. Prosecutors bore the burden of disproving self-defense after it became an issue in the case. Their evidence included the crew members’ denials that Staggs struck Jackson, the offer to remove the debris and the rapid move from a verbal disagreement to multiple gunshots.
The jurors’ conclusion carried a direct consequence for Jackson. On June 10, the court sentenced him to 21 years to life in prison. The sentencing date was also the day Staggs would have turned 23. The minimum term means Jackson must spend at least 21 years in custody before the state may consider him for parole. Release at that point is not automatic. The life sentence allows continued imprisonment if the parole authority determines that release is not appropriate. The punishment followed the merger or treatment of overlapping counts under Ohio sentencing rules, since the convictions arose from the same shooting.
For Staggs’ relatives, the verdict ended a long period in which the defense publicly disputed what happened during his final moments. Family members said they were relieved the trial had concluded and that they could finally grieve without waiting for a jury’s decision. Their loss began during an ordinary work assignment. Staggs, who was from the Eaton area, had joined other crew members at a residential property and was doing the kind of job that regularly places workers near streets, driveways and parked cars. His employer later said his death left an enormous absence among his loved ones, co-workers and the wider landscaping community.
Descriptions shared after Staggs’ death showed interests that never entered the legal dispute. He had played baseball, cared deeply about animals and enjoyed hair metal and 1990s rap, according to a fundraising page organized to help with funeral expenses. The campaign collected more than $30,000 soon after the shooting. Those details contrasted with the narrow focus required at trial, where the victim was often discussed through medical findings, witness observations and the path of bullets. The court process examined the final minutes of his life. His family and friends remembered the years that came before them.
The prosecution viewed the case as an example of a firearm being used to settle a minor dispute. The defense viewed it as a case in which a man reacted to a sudden physical threat. Both sides had the opportunity to question witnesses, challenge evidence and address the jury. The guilty findings settled that disagreement for purposes of the criminal trial. They did not depend on proving that every witness remembered every second in exactly the same way. They required unanimous findings that the state established the offenses beyond a reasonable doubt and defeated the claim of lawful self-defense.
Jackson remains imprisoned under the 21-years-to-life sentence imposed June 10. His remaining legal options concern review of the conviction and sentence, not another jury assessment of the evidence unless an appellate court later orders further proceedings.
Author note: Last updated July 12, 2026.