Joseph Howard was convicted after a 2023 shooting outside a Columbus bar killed his sister and another woman and wounded a man.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A 22-year-old Columbus man has been sentenced to a cumulative life term with possible parole after 49 years for a 2023 shooting outside Double D’s bar that killed his sister and another woman and wounded a third person. Joseph Howard received the sentence Aug. 6 after a jury convicted him in July of aggravated murder, murder, aggravated robbery, felonious assault and tampering with evidence.

The sentence brings the trial-level case to a close nearly three years after the Sept. 13, 2023, gunfire that killed 24-year-old Tavia Copley and Howard’s 24-year-old sister, Taya Mollette. Court records and reporting on the sentencing show the punishment was built from separate prison terms tied to Copley’s killing, Mollette’s killing, the shooting of Daniel Brumfield, a robbery after the gunfire and evidence-related conduct. Howard was 19 when the shooting occurred. The convictions followed a prosecution that relied in part on surveillance video, witness identification, cellphone-location information and fingerprint evidence described in an earlier appellate decision.

According to sentencing information cited in court reporting, Howard received 30 years to life for Copley’s aggravated murder and 15 years to life for Mollette’s murder. He also received an eight- to 12-year term for felonious assault involving Brumfield, five to 7 1/2 years for aggravated robbery and 24 months for tampering with evidence, along with six additional years for firearm specifications. The combined structure means Howard will spend decades in prison before he can be considered for parole. Parole eligibility is not a promise of release; it marks the point at which release may be considered under the sentence.

The case began late at night outside the Columbus bar. A 2024 decision from Ohio’s Tenth District Court of Appeals, issued while Howard was awaiting trial, summarized testimony from Columbus police Detective Arthur Hughes at a hearing over whether Howard should remain jailed without bail. Hughes said surveillance video showed Mollette and Copley in a physical fight at about 11:27 p.m. Copley pinned Mollette to the ground and struck her, the decision said. Howard then kicked Copley several times while another man tried to separate the women. What began as a fight involving fists then turned into gunfire.

Hughes testified that Howard pulled a handgun from his waistband and fired several rounds toward the women, striking Copley, Mollette and Brumfield, who the court said was standing nearby and was not involved in the fight. The surveillance recording had no sound. Hughes said investigators had received information that Howard shouted for Copley to get off his sister before he fired. The appellate court’s account also said Hughes believed the gun jammed during the shooting, based on his review of the video and a live round found at the scene. After clearing the problem, Howard fired again at Copley at close range, according to the testimony summarized by the court.

The violence did not end when the shots stopped. The appellate decision said Howard ran after another man, identified in the ruling only by initials, and took that man’s cellphone at gunpoint before leaving. Later reporting identified Brumfield as the wounded bystander and said Howard also tried to interfere as Brumfield sought emergency help. Copley died at the scene. Mollette was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Brumfield survived his gunshot wounds after surgery, according to the appellate decision. Those events became the basis for the murder, assault and robbery allegations that prosecutors pursued as the case moved through Franklin County Common Pleas Court.

Investigators also developed evidence aimed at identifying Howard as the shooter. Hughes testified that Howard’s mother identified him from a still image taken from the bar’s surveillance footage. Police obtained cellphone-site information and latent fingerprints from the hood of a car that the video showed Howard touching during the confrontation, the appellate ruling said. A witness also selected Howard from a police photo array. Officers recovered two weapons in the surrounding area, but the appellate court specifically noted that the record before it did not establish that either weapon was the gun Howard used in the shooting. That limitation remained part of the public record even as other identification evidence accumulated.

Howard was not arrested in Columbus. Roughly two weeks after the shooting, law enforcement officers found him at a relative’s home in Florida, according to the appellate ruling. He was arrested without incident and returned to Ohio after waiving an extradition hearing. The court record said it was unclear whether officers seized any firearms from him when he was taken into custody. A Franklin County grand jury later returned an 11-count indictment that included aggravated murder, multiple murder counts, attempted murder and aggravated robbery, all with firearm specifications. Howard pleaded not guilty at his October 2023 arraignment, and prosecutors asked that he be held without bail while the case was pending.

The bail fight produced one of the most detailed public accounts of the evidence before trial. Under Ohio law, the hearing required the judge to consider the seriousness of the charged offenses, the weight of the evidence, Howard’s history and community ties, and the danger the court believed release could pose. The rules governing that proceeding were different from a jury trial, and the appeals court noted that evidence considered at a detention hearing does not have to satisfy the same admissibility rules that govern a criminal trial. After an Oct. 26, 2023, hearing, a judge ordered Howard held without bail. He appealed that decision. In December 2024, the Tenth District Court of Appeals upheld the detention order, concluding that the trial court had sufficient grounds under Ohio law to keep him jailed before trial. The appellate panel noted several facts that favored Howard in a traditional release analysis: He had no prior criminal history, had lived in Columbus his entire life, had family ties in the area and owned a lawn-care business. He also had been arrested in Florida without incident. But the court said the nature of the charged violence and the evidence presented at the detention hearing supported the no-bail decision.

That appellate ruling did not determine Howard’s guilt. The distinction became especially important because the decision summarized highly damaging allegations from the investigation while Howard was still awaiting a jury. The appellate judges were deciding whether the trial court had abused its discretion in denying bail, not whether every charged count had been proved beyond a reasonable doubt. The later jury verdicts, rather than the detention ruling, supplied the findings of guilt that authorized sentencing. The criminal case continued for more than a year and a half after that decision. By July 2026, a jury had heard the case and convicted Howard of aggravated murder, murder, aggravated robbery, felonious assault and tampering with evidence. Those verdicts changed Howard’s legal status from a defendant presumed innocent to a person convicted of the offenses on which the jury returned guilty findings, setting the stage for the August sentencing.

The outcome also put separate legal consequences on conduct that unfolded within a short span outside the bar. The aggravated-murder sentence addressed Copley’s death, while another life term addressed Mollette’s death. The felonious-assault term covered the wounding of Brumfield, and the aggravated-robbery term reflected the taking of a cellphone at gunpoint described in the court record. Firearm specifications added more time. The sentencing structure therefore did more than impose one punishment for a single burst of gunfire; it accounted for multiple victims and additional acts that prosecutors proved as separate crimes. Publicly available reporting does not indicate that the court erased the distinctions among those offenses when it calculated Howard’s overall parole eligibility.

Howard remains under the life sentence imposed Aug. 6. The public record reviewed for this report does not establish a scheduled parole date, only that he may become eligible for consideration after serving the required period. The case now stands as a completed jury prosecution at the trial-court level, following the 2023 killings, Howard’s arrest in Florida, his unsuccessful pretrial bail appeal, the July 2026 verdicts and the August sentencing.

Author note: Last updated September 22, 2026.