YOUNGSTOWN — Kevin Agee Jr., who was sentenced to 39 years to life in prison for fatally shooting Thomas Repchic, 74, and wounding his wife, Jacqueline Repchic in Youngstown in 2010, has died at Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Conneaut in Ashtabula County.

He and Aubrey Toney were convicted in the vicious 2010 mistaken identity murder of Repchic and wounding of his wife Jacqueline near St. Dominic Church on the South Side.

Agee, 37, who entered the prison system May 30, 2012, was not eligible to be released from prison until September 2041, according to prison records.

A spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said Agee died Jan. 4 “of apparent natural causes. The official cause of death will be determined upon receipt of the death certificate.”

Investigators say Agee was with Toney on Sept. 25, 2010, when Toney fired shots into a Cadillac being driven by Repchic as he and his wife were leaving the church.

THE CRIME

According to a 7th District Court of Appeals ruling, Agee’s friend, Toney, was involved in an ongoing feud with two individuals nicknamed Piru and OB. It seems that Piru believed Toney shot at his house, and Toney believed that Piru retaliated by shooting up his car.

OB was known to drive a burgundy 1990 Cadillac DeVille that was described as “old school” and “flashy.”

On Sept. 25, 2010, Toney was at a Little League football game with Agee when he received a call from his female cousin about noon, stating that Piru was across the street from Toney’s father’s house on Ferndale Avenue. Toney and Agee soon arrived at a female cousin of Agee’s house on Hilton Avenue and borrowed her reddish or burgundy Dodge Durango, leaving the small car Toney had been driving at her house.

At some point, Agee drove down Southern Boulevard and turned down a short dead-end portion of Philadelphia Avenue. He then turned around and stopped at the stop sign at Philadelphia Avenue and Southern Boulevard. In the meantime, around 1 p.m., Thomas Repchic was sitting in his burgundy 1990 Cadillac DeVille outside of St. Dominic Church, on the corner of Southern Boulevard and Lucius Avenue waiting for his wife, who worked as a secretary at the church. Jacqueline Repchic, also 74, got in their Cadillac, and they proceeded north on Southern Boulevard.

“As the Cadillac approached the Durango at Philadelphia Avenue, Toney wrested a large .308 rifle from next to his seat and fired seven shots into the Repchic vehicle. One shot went through the passenger door and took off Mrs. Repchic’s right foot; her other foot was also injured by bullet fragments. Another shot went through the back of the driver’s seat and killed Mr. Repchic by entering his lung and heart. Mrs. Repchic reached over and steered the car into the curb just before the busy y-junction at Market Street,” it states.

Police followed a blood trail leading from the car toward the intersection where they found a fired .308 cartridge in the middle of the street. The police interviewed witnesses near that area who saw a red Durango go down the street and saw gunsmoke near the Durango after the shots were fired.

A male cousin told police that Agee was involved and said the gun would be found in Agee’s garage on Garfield Street. On Sept. 28, 2010, police executed a search warrant at the house on Garfield just as Agee was exiting the house. They found an unfired .308 cartridge on the living room bookshelf. A state agent testified at trial that this unfired cartridge had been cycled through a gun and had extractor marks that matched the fired cartridge found at the scene of the shooting. The police also seized guns, other ammunition, bulletproof vests, crack cocaine and more.

Toney, who was convicted of murder and felonious assault, is serving 29-years-to-life. He’s eligible for a parole hearing in 2054.

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