A Hamilton County jury must now decide whether a fatal shooting in a Cincinnati Shake Shack parking lot was murder or self-defense, as prosecutors and defense attorneys delivered opening statements Wednesday in the trial of Antwoine McCants.
McCants, 56, is charged with murder and felonious assault in the June 2025 killing of 41-year-old Christopher Stallworth at a Shake Shack restaurant near the University of Cincinnati.
Prosecutors said the two men first encountered each other outside the restaurant in a dispute over a parking space. McCants and his wife had stopped their three-wheeled motorcycles in a travel lane to back into a spot when they met Stallworth and his fiancee, who said McCants flashed a gun at her.
Stallworth went inside the restaurant to confront McCants. As the two talked, McCants aimed a gun at Stallworth and pulled the trigger — but the gun did not fire because there was no round in the chamber, according to prosecutors. McCants then racked the gun and fired, striking Stallworth in the chest.
Stallworth staggered outside onto the restaurant’s patio and collapsed in the bushes. He was rushed to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where he died.
“A misunderstanding over a parking spot did not have to end with Christopher Stallworth’s death,” Assistant Prosecutor Jackie Stachowiak told jurors. “It ended that way because Antwoine McCants chose to pull and fire a gun.”
Stachowiak said witnesses never saw Stallworth pull a gun and some described him as unarmed, adding that McCants admitted to police he did not see Stallworth with one. The shooting was captured on surveillance cameras inside the restaurant.