Arvoni Hayes pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the shooting of Aaron McInnis, who stopped to check on a woman heard crying.

PORTLAND, Ore. — A Portland man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for killing a 30-year-old father who approached a vehicle after another man asked for help checking on a woman who could be heard crying inside, bringing a two-year criminal case to a close.

Arvoni Alexander Hayes, 25, was sentenced Sept. 11 after pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter and unlawful use of a weapon with a firearm in the July 14, 2024, death of Aaron McInnis. The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office said Hayes will also serve three years of post-prison supervision. The plea ended a prosecution that began with a second-degree murder charge and avoided a trial on that accusation. Hayes had pleaded not guilty after his arrest in 2024, when the charges against him had not yet been proven.

The sentencing resolves the legal case while leaving the unusual circumstances that brought McInnis and Hayes together at its center. Prosecutors said McInnis had been dropping off a friend at her home near Normandale Park in Northeast Portland when another man approached and asked him for help. The man said he had heard a woman crying in a nearby car and wanted someone to accompany him while he checked on her. McInnis, who apparently had no prior connection to Hayes, agreed and walked with the man to the vehicle.

Hayes was inside the car with the woman, whom prosecutors identified as his girlfriend. According to the district attorney’s account, Hayes stepped out of the vehicle naked and eventually agreed to leave the woman alone. He then slowly began getting dressed. Prosecutors said the encounter changed when Hayes suddenly returned to the car and yelled at the woman to drive them away. McInnis ran after the vehicle as it left the area, and the confrontation moved from the place where the men had initially approached the car to a nearby intersection.

The district attorney’s office said Hayes got out of the vehicle at the intersection and opened fire on McInnis. McInnis was struck three times. He was taken to Oregon Health and Science University, where he died. Portland police initially investigated the death as an unsolved homicide while searching for the person responsible. Earlier reporting from KPTV said officers had been called to Northeast 55th Avenue and Hassalo Street at about 11:30 p.m. and found McInnis suffering from gunshot wounds. The medical examiner later determined that he died from those injuries.

Other reporting based on court records provides additional details about the encounter but does not describe every moment in precisely the same way as the district attorney’s later sentencing summary. Law&Crime reported that witnesses and court documents described concern that the woman inside the vehicle might be in danger. The report said Hayes and the woman initially indicated that they were OK when McInnis and the other man approached. McInnis nevertheless remained concerned about her safety and confronted Hayes. The public accounts also differ somewhat over McInnis’ movement immediately before the shots were fired, underscoring why some details should not be presented as conclusively established.

The criminal case did not result in an immediate arrest. A Multnomah County grand jury later indicted Hayes on second-degree murder, unlawful use of a weapon and possession of a loaded firearm in a public place. Authorities obtained a warrant, and U.S. Marshals took Hayes into custody without incident on Sept. 11, 2024. He was 23 at the time. Hayes appeared before a judge the following day and entered a not guilty plea. The district attorney’s office stressed in announcing the arraignment that the indictment was an accusation and that Hayes was presumed innocent unless and until guilt was established.

The case changed substantially before it reached a jury. By 2026, Hayes agreed to plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter and unlawful use of a weapon with a firearm. The resolution meant prosecutors did not have to prove the original second-degree murder allegation at trial, and a jury did not have to decide among competing descriptions of the confrontation. It also established the offenses for which Hayes could be sentenced. The distinction is important: Hayes was originally accused of murder, but his convictions are for manslaughter and unlawful use of a weapon.

Deputy District Attorney Eric Palmer, who prosecuted the case, focused on McInnis’ decision to help a stranger in remarks released after sentencing. Palmer called McInnis “a hero to the very end” and said he did not hesitate to check on another person’s safety. The prosecutor said McInnis lost his life after taking that action. The district attorney’s office also credited Portland Police Bureau homicide investigators, including Detective Shaye Samora, for their work on the case and acknowledged victim advocates who assisted McInnis’ family during the prosecution.

McInnis’ relatives have also emphasized the circumstances that led him to the vehicle. KPTV reported after his death that McInnis was the father of a 10-year-old boy and that his family was struggling to process the killing. His father spoke publicly about continuing to support his grandson after the loss. A family fundraiser cited in later reporting described McInnis as a son, brother, father and friend who regularly supported people who needed help. Relatives also said he worked as a sales representative in the Portland area. Those details placed the fatal encounter within a life that had no known connection to the dispute he encountered that night.

The public record does not fully explain why the woman was crying or everything that happened between her and Hayes before McInnis arrived. The district attorney’s sentencing statement says only that another man heard her crying and sought McInnis’ help. Law&Crime reported that the woman later told police she had feared for her life while she was in the vehicle, while noting that the reason was not immediately clear. Because the case ended in a plea instead of a trial, witnesses were not required to provide a complete public account before a jury, and unresolved details were not necessarily decided by a fact-finder.

The plea nevertheless settled the central criminal issue. Hayes admitted guilt to manslaughter and unlawful use of a weapon, and the court imposed an 18-year prison term. The outcome transformed the case from one based on unresolved allegations into one based on convictions entered through Hayes’ own guilty pleas. It also ended the possibility of a murder trial that might have produced a longer public examination of witness accounts, police evidence and the precise sequence before the shooting.

For McInnis’ family, the legal resolution arrives more than two years after an ordinary trip to drop off a friend turned into a fatal encounter. McInnis did not approach the vehicle as a police officer, investigator or person involved in an existing dispute. Prosecutors said he went because another man asked for help checking on someone who appeared to be in distress. That fact became a central theme at sentencing and has remained a defining part of how his relatives and prosecutors describe the circumstances of his death.

The court’s judgment now fixes the legal outcome that was uncertain when Hayes was first charged in 2024. He was convicted of first-degree manslaughter and unlawful use of a weapon, not the second-degree murder count originally alleged, and was ordered to serve 18 years in prison followed by three years of post-prison supervision. With that sentence imposed, no trial on the original murder charge is expected.

Author note: Last updated October 21, 2026.