According to authorities, a Maryland man will spend the rest of his life in prison for murdering an aspiring boxer while listening to loud music.
Nicholas Francis Giroux, 37, was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years on Tuesday for the murder of his 27-year-old neighbor, Isaiah Olugbemi, according to the Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Office. Giroux pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and using a firearm in a violent crime in February.
At 9:44 p.m., officers from the Anne Arundel County Police Department responded to a shooting at a townhome on the 500 block of Meadowmist Way in Odenton, about 20 miles south of Baltimore.
Cops discovered Olugbemi with multiple gunshot wounds. He was rushed to a hospital and pronounced dead.
Surveillance video captured the shooting. It showed Giroux approaching the victim and shooting him multiple times with a handgun. Prosecutors said he returned and fired three more shots. He went to his neighboring townhouse before fleeing in a van.
According to prosecutors, Giroux had a dispute with Olugbemi and his family over loud music. Giroux confronted the victim over loud music at a cookout approximately two weeks before the fatal encounter. He allegedly brandished a handgun but did not point it at anyone, so he was not arrested.
Cops later questioned Giroux about the shooting, and he admitted to the murder and showed officers where he kept the gun he used. He shot the victim 14 times, according to Washington, D.C.-based WRC.
The defendant also allegedly accused Olugbemi’s family of drug dealing, claiming he did the state a favor and “I still want my medal of honor.”
However, any vigilante defense fell apart as a result of Giroux’s jailhouse calls.
“This is what happens when you f— with my sleep schedule,” he said on one of the recorded calls played in court, according to WRC. “You don’t wake up.”
Olugbemi was born in New York and moved to Maryland while in elementary school, according to his obituary. He participated on the football, wrestling, and track teams in high school and graduated in 2015. Six years later, he took up another sport, boxing. He excelled, winning the Golden Gloves national championship in the 203-pound division in 2024, three weeks before his death.
“He was laser focused and poured his heart and soul into it; training three times daily with an eye and heart aimed to the absolute top,” stated his tombstone.
His brother, Daniel Olugbemi, told WRC that “the world has lost a gem.”
“I have no doubts about that. It’s a shame for the world because Isaiah had a lot to offer. And it was just cut short in the prime of his life,” he explained.
The victim was also a father.
“Mr. Olugbemi was a father and a rising amateur boxing star.” “This was a cruel and senseless murder that took the life of someone with a lot of potential,” State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess stated. “The Defendant’s callousness and lack of remorse is very disturbing. “He deserved this sentence.”
