Background: News footage of Rushon Patterson in court on Sept. 15, 2025 (WOIO). Inset: Malachi Nichols-Williams (GoFundMe).
An Ohio man who used to serve as a volunteer pastor has been convicted in the death of a teen who went to his church.
Rushon Patterson II, 27, was found guilty on Tuesday of involuntary manslaughter and allowing a child to ride outside of a vehicle. The charges were in connection with the death of 14-year-old Malachi Nichols-Williams, who died in September 2025 from injuries he sustained after he fell off a van being driven by Patterson. Patterson was found not guilty of reckless homicide.
Malachi’s mother, Pamela Nichols, told local Canton, Ohio-based newspaper The Repository shortly after her son’s death that Patterson “was a dad” to Malachi and her other children. Nichols told the paper that she felt Patterson was not a bad person, but that he made a bad decision.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Patterson was a volunteer youth pastor at the Alive Now Kidz Church, based in Canton Township, at the time of the incident. On the afternoon of Sept. 6, 2025, Patterson was driving a church van around a neighborhood and let Malachi and a few other teenagers hold onto the side of the van while he drove it. Police said most of the teens jumped off the van when they spotted a pothole in the road.
Malachi did not see the pothole, and when Patterson drove over it, the teen was thrown off the van and hit his head on the pavement. He sustained a skull fracture and a severe brain injury. Nichols told The Repository that Malachi initially tried to stand up after falling off the van. A pediatric neurosurgeon testified during the trial that medical staff thought he might recover.
The teen spent three days on life support before Nichols made the painful decision to let him go. Malachi died on Sept. 9, 2025. She decided to donate her son’s organs, telling local CBS affiliate WEWS, “I know he’s not gone, so if he can help somebody else to live, I would love that.”
Patterson was initially charged with vehicular homicide before the charge was changed to reckless homicide. Nichols told WEWS at the time, “I think that’s too severe of a charge, the homicide part of it. I don’t agree with that.”
Patterson is scheduled to be sentenced on May 12.
