17-Year-Old Steven Sopko Sentenced to 31 Years to Life in Prison for Shooting 14-Year-Old Braylon Hardges 13 Times in the Back and Killing Him in November 2023

On November 5, 2023, around 6:20 p.m., Steven Sopko, 16 years old at the time of the murder, and Braylon Hardges were at Sopko’s girlfriend’s house near East 90th Street and Edmunds Avenue in Cleveland. Hardges and Sopko exited the residence together and began walking down the street. Sopko bent down and let Hardges walk a little in front of him. Sopko then stood up and fired 12 shots into Hardges’s back, waited until he fell to the ground, leaned over him, and fired again into his back. Sopko then fled the scene and went back to his girlfriend’s house. The Cleveland Police Department (CPD) and Cleveland EMS responded to the scene and Hardges was transported to a nearby hospital where he was later pronounced deceased.

You can view videos of the incidents below:

Please note: the video was released unredacted at the request of Braylon Hardges’s mother.

The investigation was conducted by the CPD’s Homicide Unit. Further investigation including phone records, social media records, and NIBIN and ballistic evidence linked Sopko to the crime. On January 4, 2024, Steven Sopko was arrested by the U.S. Marshal’s Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force.

The State of Ohio filed a mandatory bindover motion in Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court. After a probable cause hearing, Judge Thomas O’Malley found there was probable cause and granted the mandatory bindover motion on March 5, 2024, transferring the case to the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas.

On October 25, 2024, Steven Sopko was found guilty by a jury on all charges:

• One count of Aggravated Murder
• Two counts of Murder
• Two counts of Felonious Assault

On October 31, 2024, he was sentenced by Judge Nancy Fuerst to life in prison with the first eligibility of parole after 31 years.