MAHONING COUNTY Judge mulls new trial for woman

By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A judge will decide this week whether Tina Davis gets a new trial for running over a man with her car.
Davis, 37, of Powers Way, was convicted by a Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in May on a single count of felonious assault. She faces two to eight years in prison or could be placed on probation.
Judge R. Scott Krichbaum has delayed sentencing because Davis' attorneys filed a motion for a new trial.
New evidence found: They said there was not enough evidence presented at trial to support the verdict, that they have discovered new evidence since the verdict that could help their case, and that Assistant Prosecutor Patrick Pochiro withheld evidence from them before trial.
In a hearing Tuesday, Judge Krichbaum said there was no prosecutorial misconduct and there was plenty of evidence presented during the trial to support the conviction.
He's considering whether the new evidence is enough to warrant a new trial for Davis, who is being held without bond in the county jail.
About the case: Davis was driving south on Interstate 680 in March 2000 when she became involved in an altercation with three men traveling south in another car.
Authorities said Davis became enraged, followed the men off the freeway and into the parking lot of a Boardman restaurant, where an argument ensued. She ran over one of the men, 43-year-old David Morrow of Austintown, with her car.
Morrow's brother, Michael, was the driver of the second car and was the one who argued with Davis in the parking lot.
One of Davis' attorneys, Robert Rohrbaugh II, said he learned after the trial that Michael Morrow was convicted on a misdemeanor charge of assault in 1989 following a similar incident.
Earlier altercation: He said the Morrow brothers were in a car after a Youngstown State University football game when they harassed a black family on the highway. They followed the family home, then beat up the man driving the other car.
But Pochiro said David Morrow was not in that car and that the assault happened at a home across the street from the victim's house, where Michael Morrow was attending a party, not at the victim's house.
"This is another attempt to overexaggerate the facts of this case," Pochiro said.
He said the assault conviction should have nothing to do with Davis' case because Michael Morrow was only a witness, not a victim or perpetrator.
But Rohrbaugh said the previous conviction establishes a pattern of conduct by Michael Morrow that jurors in Davis' trial should have known about.