Ohio Man Gets More Than 30 Years for Deadly 2023 Charleston Shooting

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Nearly three years after a deadly shooting shattered the night after Christmas on Charleston’s West Side, the man responsible is headed to a West Virginia prison for decades.

Dominick Curtis Gray, 40, of Columbus, Ohio, has been sentenced by Kanawha County Circuit Judge Stephanie Abraham in the death of Charleston resident Beverly Hensley, who was 34. Judge Abraham handed down a combined 30-year term on the manslaughter and firearms charges, plus an indeterminate sentence of one to five years for unlawful wounding, which puts Gray behind bars for more than 30 years in all.

Gray pleaded guilty last month to four counts: voluntary manslaughter, unlawful use of a firearm during the commission of a felony, unlawful wounding, and being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm.

The shooting happened on Dec. 26, 2023, at an apartment on Lippert Street in the Orchard Manor community. Charleston police were called to the townhouse a little before 11:30 that night and found Hensley and her infant daughter inside.

Testimony at a probable cause hearing in 2024 showed that Hensley had been shot five times. Her daughter, who was just nine months old at the time, suffered a grazing wound.

Gray was first indicted on a charge of first-degree murder in July 2024. The case ended with his guilty plea to voluntary manslaughter and the related counts, and the sentencing closes the courtroom chapter of a case that has weighed on the West Side for close to three years.

Kanawha County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Joshua Gainer prosecuted the case.

Nothing a judge says can give a family back what was taken that night. But for the loved ones of Beverly Hensley, and for a little girl who will grow up without her mother, this sentence brings some measure of accountability. Our thoughts are with them, and with every Charleston family still working to keep their neighborhoods safe.