AKRON — A Summit County jury has convicted a Cleveland man of murder in the 2025 shooting death of Razeil Robinson, closing the courtroom chapter of a case that began with an Akron employee finding a cell phone, its flashlight still on, in a dark parking lot. Timothy Whitthorne, 34, of Cleveland, was found guilty of murder, felony murder, felonious assault, having weapons while under disability and three firearm specifications, according to Summit County Common Pleas Court records, as reported by the Akron Beacon Journal.
Judge Jennifer Towell will sentence Whitthorne at 10 a.m. on November 17, according to a Summit County Prosecutor’s Office news release cited by the Beacon Journal. Attorneys Seneca Konturas and Christopher Rivero represent Whitthorne, the Beacon Journal reported.
Robinson, 27, was found in the early morning hours of September 25, 2025, after an employee parked in a lot on the 1000 block of Rosemary Boulevard and found a cell phone with its flashlight turned on, prosecutors explained in the news release, as reported by the Beacon Journal. Later that day, when visibility improved, employees found Robinson nearby in the grass.
When officers arrived, they identified Robinson. Investigators determined he had been shot in the neck and chest, and the gunshot wound to his chest proved fatal, damaging his lungs and heart, prosecutors said, according to the Beacon Journal’s report of the prosecutor’s release.
Surveillance footage showed Whitthorne and a woman walking in the area before, during and after the shooting, prosecutors said in the release. Akron police officers identified the woman, who said Whitthorne shot Robinson multiple times after Robinson approached them, according to the prosecutor’s office, as reported by the Beacon Journal.
After the shooting, Whitthorne and the woman fled to a friend’s apartment and then to Cleveland, where the Northeast Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force arrested Whitthorne, the Beacon Journal reported. Officers recovered a Glock 40 that matched the shell casings at the scene, according to the prosecutor’s news release.
The weapons charge in the verdict — having weapons while under disability — is Ohio’s charge for possessing a firearm while legally barred from having one, a prohibition that commonly follows a prior felony conviction or another legal disability. Its presence in the indictment, alongside the three firearm specifications, meant the jury was asked to decide not only who fired the shots on Rosemary Boulevard, but whether Whitthorne was legally permitted to carry the gun at all.
The arrest itself crossed county lines: after fleeing Akron for Cleveland, Whitthorne was taken into custody there by the Northeast Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force, the U.S. Marshals-led multi-agency task force that tracks down wanted fugitives across the region — the same kind of task-force arrest that routinely returns Summit County defendants to Akron to face their charges.
The conviction brings a measure of finality to one of the Akron cases that has moved through Summit County’s courts this fall, in a season when Northeast Ohio juries and judges have been working through a heavy docket of violent-crime cases. In a separate Summit County case last month, a woman was sentenced to four to six years in prison for the vehicular manslaughter of Kameron Rubin, the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office announced in October.
Cases like Robinson’s also land in a region still wrestling with gun violence in its neighborhoods — the same week, state officials were warning Ohio drivers about a dangerous social-media stunt after a Medina County crash, as Ohio officials warned of the ‘Beat the Sign’ stop-sign challenge, and Cuyahoga County was absorbing the identification of a young victim, as an 18-year-old was identified in a fatal Maple Heights apartment shooting.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: a Summit County jury convicted Timothy Whitthorne, 34, of Cleveland, of murder, felony murder, felonious assault, having weapons while under disability and three firearm specifications in the September 25, 2025, shooting death of Razeil Robinson, 27, according to Summit County Common Pleas Court records reported by the Akron Beacon Journal; prosecutors say Robinson was shot in the neck and chest in a Rosemary Boulevard parking lot area, surveillance footage placed Whitthorne and a companion at the scene, and a recovered Glock 40 matched shell casings found there, according to the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office.
What we’re still waiting on: the sentence. The convictions carry the firearm specifications with them into the November 17 hearing, where Judge Towell will set the prison term. NewsForce247 will update readers when the sentence is announced.
What happens next is that sentencing hearing — 10 a.m. on November 17 in Summit County Common Pleas Court — where Robinson’s family and the community that found him on Rosemary Boulevard will learn how long Whitthorne will spend in prison for the killing.