Columbus Teen Linked to ‘Kia Boys’ Gets 9.5 Year Prison Sentence

Software Security Flaw In Some Hyundai And Kia Cars Make Them Target Of Theft — Source: Justin Sullivan / Getty

The second chance given to a Columbus teen earlier this year has run out.

Nineteen-year-old Akie Benjamin was ordered Monday to serve nine and a half years in prison after violating the terms of his probation. Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Michael Holbrook handed down the sentence just months after he’d opted for community control over prison time, hoping Benjamin would turn things around.

Holbrook explained he took the risk partly because no one had been physically hurt in Benjamin’s prior cases, which included felonious assault and receiving stolen property.

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“If someone would have been hurt, it would have been a different decision,” the judge said at the time.

Benjamin has repeatedly been linked to the “Kia Boys,” a group tied to an uptick in Kia and Hyundai thefts in Ohio. His record includes being shot during an attempted theft in 2023, two arrests in one day in 2024 (one for stealing a car, another for ramming a stolen vehicle into an undercover detective’s car), and other run-ins with police.

In a 2023 interview, his mother, Tiffany Hammon, had pleaded for the courts to act on her son’s behavior.

“Please arrest him. Lock him up. Do something that’s going to make him pay for the things that he’s out here doing,” she said.

Court records show Benjamin was arrested again on July 9, 2025, but details on the probation violation have not been made public.

At Monday’s hearing, Judge Holbrook told Benjamin it was time to stop treating life “like a video game”. After sentencing, the judge admitted disappointment, saying he tries to connect young defendants to programs that could keep them out of prison. “He just didn’t get it,” Holbrook said.

Benjamin can request parole after five years or appeal the sentence.