A Cuyahoga County jury convicted Dojuan Nettles and acquitted Dionte Davis in the 2011 killing of art student Brandon Cartellone.

A split verdict means the jury reached different results for each man. Nettles stands convicted and awaits sentencing. Davis's acquittal is final on these charges, and it came after the judge threw out evidence against him mid-trial over an improper 2013 arrest.

A Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court jury returned a split verdict Friday afternoon, Oct. 16, 2026, in the cold-case killing of Brandon Cartellone, WKYC and Cleveland 19 reported. Jurors convicted Dojuan Nettles of aggravated murder and aggravated kidnapping. They found co-defendant Dionte Davis not guilty on all counts. Deliberations began Thursday afternoon. The trial opened Oct. 5 before Judge David Matia.

Cartellone, 21, was a student at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Prosecutors said Nettles and Davis went to his apartment near Professor Street and West 10th Street in Tremont on July 26, 2011, to buy marijuana, then tied him up with belts and duct tape, assaulted him, robbed him and fled. His girlfriend found him early the next morning and called police. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner ruled his death a homicide by manual strangulation.

The case went unsolved for 14 years. Prosecutors said advanced DNA testing and continued work by the Cleveland Homicide Initiative, which includes Cleveland police, the FBI and the Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation, linked the two men to the scene. WKYC reported that Nettles was arrested in Florida on July 9, 2025, and Davis was taken into custody two days later in Los Angeles. A grand jury indicted both on July 16, 2025, on counts that included four of aggravated murder, and bond was set at $1 million each.

On Oct. 13, Judge Matia granted a defense motion over Davis's 2013 arrest. WKYC reported the motion alleged that retired Cleveland detective Lem Griffin arrested Davis on an obstruction charge after Davis refused to be interviewed about the killing, and that evidence obtained through that arrest was tainted. The judge threw out evidence including cellphones, a laptop, a memory stick, a book bag and a water bottle, Cleveland 19 reported, and told jurors to disregard the part they had already heard.

Davis was released from custody after the verdict, WKYC reported. WKYC reported that Nettles is expected to be sentenced next month; Cleveland 19 reported no date had been set. A conviction can still be challenged on appeal. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.