Zachary Blosser, a twenty year old from Ravenna, was sentenced to nine years for involuntary manslaughter Friday in the death of his seventeen-year-old girlfriend Kaylee Freitag in March 2021. 

Becky Doherty, the Portage County Common Pleas Court judge, sentenced Blosser to an additional three years for a Firearm Specification charge, which will be served consecutively. The sentencing was live streamed on YouTube by Cleveland 19 News.  

Blosser’s maximum sentence is 16 and a half years. 

“I wish there was a way I could take it back,” Blosser testified before the court. “If there was any way, I would do anything to hold her one more time. I feel the pain in my chest every time I think of her, and I don’t think that hurt will ever fade.”

According to the procedural history listed in the Sentencing Memorandum, Blosser was arrested on March 12, 2021, and on March 18, 2021, he was indicted on two counts of murder and felonious assault and one count of tampering with evidence and safecracking. He was arraigned on March 19, 2021. 

Blosser eventually pled guilty to first-degree involuntary manslaughter on July 5, 2023. He was eighteen at the time of Freitag’s death, according to the Sentencing Memorandum.

According to the prosecuting attorney, the cause of Freitag’s death was a gunshot to the mouth. Her death occurred in the basement of her aunt and uncle’s home, where she and Blosser were living at the time, the Sentencing Memorandum stated. 

After Freitag was shot, Blosser tried administering CPR, but Freitag had suffered “catastrophic injuries,” as stated in the Sentencing Memorandum. 

“Over several weeks, Zach and Kaylee played around with the gun that ultimately killed Kaylee,” the Sentencing Memorandum stated. “They had open access to the rifle and took pictures with the rifle in the weeks leading up to her death. Zach and Kaylee were essentially children, allowed to play with deadly weapons, without anyone thinking of the possible consequences.” 

Doherty commented on factors she considered in her sentencing. 

“I think the most disturbing thing to me in this information that has been provided to me in the presentence investigation is that after Kaylee was shot and injured so severely, the first thing Zachary did was take the magazine out of the gun and put it back in the safe,” Doherty said during the sentencing. “That is the action of someone who yes, is scared, but is making every effort to cover this up.”

Leah Shepard is team editor. Contact her at [email protected].
Isabella Schreck is editor-in-chief. Contact her at [email protected].