During the summer of 2007 while moving from his apartment an enlisted the help of acquaintance Joseph McGowan. During his move out, a fight ensued between Pettway and his then room mate Christopher Mitchell. During the fight Pettway fired a single shot from his legally possessed firearm into the abdomen of Mitchell who was in possession of a screw driver and in the midst of swinging it at Pettway. Thereafter, Pettway exited the room to call the police and Mitchell was assaulted by Joseph McGowan who hit Mitchell in the head several times with a baseball bat. McGowan then attempted to strike Mitchell’ s girlfriend Rebecca Beyer who was also present but Pettway thwarted the assault. Mitchell died on the scene and both Pettway and McGowan were arrested in connection with the incident. The Cuyahoga county prosecutors office stacked the charges, a common practice in big city judicial systems where the prosecutors will over indict the defendant on more serious charges then offer a plea deal to the actual charges they believe the defendant to have committed. This is used to guarantee the prosecution a conviction without the inconvenience of a trial. It is a common intimidation practice that often leads the defendant to believe that they have no other option but to plead guilty without going to trial. This strategy results in a higher conviction rate due to defendants pleading out. Pettway was indicted on a slew of charges including aggravated murder. The state prosecutor offered Pettway a deal to plea of 6 years on an attempted murder charge. Pettway declined the plea deal as he was adamant on claims of self defense and headed to trial. During trial EMS testified that 2 weapons were found on the victim’s person; a screw driver and pair of brass knuckles. The coroner also testified that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. The gunshot wound to abdomen was concluded as non-fatal/not the cause of death. The coroner said that the victim could have survived the gunshot wound alone. After this testimony, the state changed their strategy, refusing to call the victim’s then girlfriend Beyer to testify who was an eyewitness to the encounter to corroborate Pettway’s self defense claim. Instead the state made McGowan a plea deal and featured him as the star witness. McGowan plead guilty to aggravated murder a 25-life prison sentence evading the death penalty in exchange for his testimony against Pettway. McGowan accepted zero responsibility during his testimony. Instead he placed 100% accountability on Pettway (to reiterate, McGowan voluntarily plead guilty which is the definition of accepting responsibility.) The state conceded during closing arguments that McGowan’s testimony was likely untruthful yet the court declared no mistrial. The judge found reason to believe Pettway may have acted in self defense and charged a self defense instruction to the jury. Pettway did not testify in his own defense. The jury found Pettway not guilty on all counts of the indictment but convicted him on the lesser included offense of murder which was only presented mid-trial) post trial McGowan wrote an affidavit stating he lied during his testimony in order to obtain the benefit of a plea deal to the state. McGowan confessed that he alone struck the victim in the head with the bat causing his death and Pettway’s only involvement was the gunshot wound which resulted from a fight that occurred between the 2 prior and was non-fatal.