Tragic Incident: Man Uses Girlfriend’s Gun in Fatal Shooting, Flees After Final Goodbye

An Ohio man narrowly avoided a life sentence after admitting to the fatal shooting of his girlfriend, a 34-year-old mother of three, in her children’s bedroom using her own firearm.

Judge Travis L. Fliehman of the Darke County Common Pleas Court sentenced Zachery S. Gilbert to a prison term ranging from 14 to 19 1/2 years for the 2024 killing of Brianne Otley, as documented in court records.

Originally charged with murder and evidence tampering, Gilbert negotiated a plea agreement with prosecutors. On Monday, he confessed to involuntary manslaughter with a firearm enhancement. This plea was entered just hours before his trial was set to commence on December 19, 2025.

A statement from the Greenville Police Department detailed that on the evening of September 26, 2024, at approximately 8:30 p.m., officers and paramedics were dispatched to the 700 block of Martin Street following reports of a shooting. Upon arrival, they discovered Otley with at least one gunshot wound. Despite immediate emergency efforts, Otley was declared dead at 9:17 p.m.

Authorities launched a manhunt for Gilbert, who had fled on foot prior to their arrival. With support from the Darke County Sheriff’s office and the Ohio Highway Patrol, officers quickly established a perimeter and successfully apprehended Gilbert.

Following his arrest, Gilbert “admitted to having his finger on the trigger when the gun was fired inside the bedroom,” Court TV reported, citing a probable cause affidavit.

Gilbert reportedly said that he had been drinking for “a few hours” when he and Otley got into an argument because he believed “the victim was seeing another subject romantically.” Otley had already broken up with Gilbert, but was allowing him to stay in her home until he found another place to live, Dayton CBS affiliate WHIO reported.

Prosecutors last week petitioned the court for the maximum sentence, a request the judge granted.

“The defendant’s conduct in this case is completely in character,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo. “He drinks, abuses drugs and he hurts people. He has been afforded treatment multiple times and does not comply. Only a lengthy incarceration will stop the defendant and protect the public from the defendant’s actions. The impact of the defendant’s action, when he killed Brianne, will be felt by her family, including her mother, sister, children, family, and friends for the rest of their lives. The defendant’s selfishness in only thinking about himself cost Brianne her life.”

Before sentencing, several of Otley’s family members addressed the court and expressed their disappointment in the plea agreement.

“They swore they were going to fight this case. My sister was a fighter, she fought her whole life,” Latasha Otley, the victim’s sister, said in footage posted by WHIO. “He shot her in her kid’s bedroom with her gun and left her lying there to bleed, kissed her on the cheek and ran out the door.”

The victim’s mother, Michelle Otley, told the judge she was “200% against this plea deal.”

“Very betrayed, very betrayed,” Michelle Otley said of prosecutors agreeing to the plea deal. “You dropped the ball on my daughter, you gave up on my daughter.”