Ex-Walnut Hills student pleads in 'Operation Entitlement'

Police called the case, “Operation Entitlement.”

The teens involved in drug robbery plots attended prestigious schools. One of them, who attended Seven Hills School and is the son of two doctors, has been sentenced to more than six years in prison.

On Monday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, 19-year-old Dominique Sims, among at least six defendants in the case, pleaded guilty to complicity to commit burglary.

Sims, who attended Walnut Hills High School, admitted a role in one of the incidents – which ended up being a botched robbery of a home in Mount Washington.

Sims said little during the hearing before Judge Beth Myers, but according to prosecutors Sims, on April 7, along with 18-year-old David Morad and a 17-year-old went to the Salem Road house. Their plan, a police detective said, was to get inside the house, bind the victims and force them to divulge where drugs and money were stashed.

The robbery fell apart when prosecutors say they were scared away by a motion-sensing light. The teens also had targeted the wrong house.

As they ran away, they were stopped by a Cincinnati police officer on a routine patrol. Morad, who had a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun in his waistband, was arrested at the scene. In court Monday, Hamilton County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Rick Gibson said Sims that night told the officer "what was going on." The next day, Gibson said, Sims went with a parent to a police precinct and gave a statement.

Gibson also told Myers he is seeking a probation term instead of a prison sentence. Sims will be sentenced on Jan. 7.

Sims’ attorney, Bradley Fox, declined to comment after the hearing.

Morad, 18, attended Seven Hills but was expelled earlier this year after he was accused in multiple plots. He had called drug robberies "his industry." The 17-year-old, whose case was resolved in juvenile court, is a Walnut Hills High School student.

Morad’s twin sister, Alexis, who admitted involvement in the Salem Road plot and agreeing to erase information from her brother’s electronic devices while he was in jail, is serving three years of probation.

A 28-year-old man, Christian Adams, admitted buying .45-caliber ammunition for David Morad. He pleaded guilty to complicity to commit burglary and was sentenced to two years of probation.