Investigators had an admitted shooter but conflicting explanations for the fatal confrontation.
DAYTON, Ohio — Investigators responding to a fatal shooting on Indiana Avenue quickly learned who fired the gun, but eyewitness accounts, a 911 recording and physical evidence were needed to determine whether Travis Jackson committed murder or acted in self-defense.
The investigation began shortly after 11:15 a.m. Sept. 18, 2025, when officers found landscaper Tanner Staggs suffering from two gunshot wounds. Jackson acknowledged shooting him and said he had been attacked. Other people at the scene described an argument over grass and dirt on Jackson’s car but said they did not see Staggs strike him. That early conflict in the evidence shaped the charges, the May 2026 trial and the jury’s decision to convict Jackson on six counts.
Before police arrived, Staggs and other Dunham’s Lawn Care LLC employees had been working at a residential property. Their equipment produced grass clippings and disturbed dirt, some of which reached Jackson’s vehicle parked nearby. Witnesses said Jackson left a home and complained to the crew. The workers offered to use a blower to clean the vehicle before they finished. Investigators were told that Jackson remained dissatisfied and the exchange grew more heated. Jackson then drew a 9 mm handgun and fired multiple rounds. Staggs was struck twice and fell near the sidewalk as the routine sounds of landscaping gave way to calls for emergency help.
Officers and paramedics reached a scene with several immediate sources of evidence. Staggs needed urgent treatment. Crew members had seen at least part of the dispute. Jackson was still linked to the weapon and placed a 911 call in which he admitted firing. Police secured the area, documented the location and began recording witness statements before memories could be affected by later conversations. Staggs was taken to Miami Valley Hospital, where he died. His death turned the inquiry into a homicide investigation and made the exact sequence before the shots critical to decisions about arrest and charges.
Jackson told authorities that the confrontation became physical. He said he was struck without warning, felt woozy and feared that the assault would continue. “I was in fear of my life and from the attack and being struck,” he said in the emergency call later played for jurors. That statement gave investigators a self-defense claim to examine from the beginning. It required them to look beyond the uncontested fact that Jackson fired. They needed to determine whether evidence supported a reasonable belief that Staggs presented an imminent threat of death or serious injury when Jackson used deadly force.
The landscaping workers supplied the main competing account. They said they did not see Staggs hit Jackson. Their statements also placed the offer to clean the car before the gun appeared. Those details supported a theory that Jackson escalated a manageable disagreement rather than responding to a severe attack. Detectives could compare the accounts with the layout of the street, the positions of witnesses, any visible injuries and the medical and ballistic evidence. The publicly reported record did not establish that witnesses confirmed the defense suggestion that Staggs used brass knuckles. That claimed weapon later became part of the trial argument but did not persuade the jury.
Authorities arrested Jackson and pursued charges reflecting both the killing and the danger created by firing near a public roadway or other prohibited area. The case ultimately included two murder counts, felonious assault with a deadly weapon, felonious assault causing serious physical harm, discharging a firearm on or near prohibited premises and involuntary manslaughter. Multiple charges can describe different legal aspects of one event. They can also preserve alternative theories for jurors, although sentencing courts must later address offenses that overlap. Jackson remained the identified shooter throughout the case. The unresolved issue was whether the law excused his conduct.
Over the following months, prosecutors prepared the witness accounts, recordings and scene evidence for presentation in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court. The defense developed its argument that the first reports did not capture the threat Jackson faced. By the start of trial May 18, both sides had built sharply different narratives from a confrontation that lasted only a short time. Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Jacob Redden said the case started with grass clippings on a car and ended because Jackson chose gunfire. Defense attorney Anthony VanNoy said Jackson had made a reasonable request and fired only after Staggs attacked him.
The court took the unusual but established step of allowing jurors to view Indiana Avenue. Seeing the location helped the panel place later testimony in a physical setting. Jurors could observe the street, neighboring properties and distances involved without relying entirely on photographs or verbal descriptions. The visit did not tell them who started the violence. It gave them context for evaluating whether witnesses could see the interaction they described. Afterward, testimony shifted the case from the broad outlines of opening statements to detailed accounts that could be compared for consistency.
Prosecutors called crew members and police officers. The workers repeated that they had not witnessed Staggs assault Jackson. Officers described the response and investigation. Jurors heard Jackson’s recorded call, preserving what he said shortly after the shooting rather than relying only on his later memory. The defense called two witnesses, including Jackson himself. By testifying, he directly asked jurors to believe that fear of another blow caused him to fire. It also allowed prosecutors to question him about why the eyewitnesses did not report seeing the attack at the center of his explanation.
VanNoy argued that the state’s version was incomplete and unfairly portrayed Jackson as a man who killed solely because of clippings. He said Staggs and another employee confronted Jackson after a worker appeared ready to get a blower. The defense suggested that Staggs might have struck Jackson with brass knuckles and that Jackson believed he remained in danger. Prosecutors answered that the people standing nearby saw no such blow. They said the practical offer to clean the car showed that the workers were trying to settle the complaint, while the handgun transformed it into a deadly encounter.
After closing arguments May 21, jurors began applying the court’s legal instructions to the evidence. They considered the elements of each offense and the self-defense issue rather than choosing a story based only on sympathy or the unusual origin of the dispute. Deliberations continued for about seven hours over two days. The panel returned around 8:30 a.m. May 22 and announced its verdict at about 2 p.m. Jackson placed his hand to his face as the clerk read guilty findings on all six counts. The verdict meant jurors concluded the state had proved the crimes and disproved lawful self-defense.
The investigative record had therefore survived its most demanding test. Statements gathered from workers at the scene were repeated under oath and challenged through cross-examination. Jackson’s recorded explanation was heard beside his courtroom testimony. The location was viewed by the people deciding the case. Prosecutors did not need to prove that the dispute began for a sensible reason. They needed to show that Jackson unlawfully caused Staggs’ death. The defense did not need to deny the shooting. It needed to create reasonable doubt about whether the use of deadly force was justified. The jury found that doubt was not present.
On June 10, the court sentenced Jackson to 21 years to life in prison. The hearing occurred on what would have been Staggs’ 23rd birthday. The minimum term delays any parole consideration for more than two decades, and release at that stage is not guaranteed. The life component permits the state to keep Jackson imprisoned beyond the first eligibility date. Any appeal would focus on the legal handling of the case, such as rulings, instructions or the sentence, rather than allowing an appellate court to substitute a fresh view of witness credibility without a recognized legal basis.
Staggs’ family said after the verdict that the end of the trial allowed them to begin grieving without waiting for a decision. His employer said his death left a deep absence among relatives, colleagues and the landscaping community. He was remembered as a baseball player, animal lover and music fan. Those parts of his life stood outside the investigative timeline but explained the loss behind it. The evidence established how he died. The people who knew him continued to describe who he had been before Indiana Avenue became the location attached to his name.
Jackson remains imprisoned under the June 10 judgment. The case now stands as a completed trial-level prosecution built from the first accounts on Indiana Avenue, Jackson’s own admission and a jury’s rejection of his explanation for using deadly force.
Author note: Last updated July 12, 2026.