YOUNGSTOWN City man accused of assault

A man was shot outside a Mahoning Avenue bar last year.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A city man who was found innocent of a murder charge earlier this year is back in court.
Warren V. Wright, 22, of Gypsy Lane, is on trial in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, charged with felonious assault.
Authorities say he shot 32-year-old Maurice Willis of Estate Circle outside the Pourhouse Bar on Mahoning Avenue in March 2000.
Testimony was to conclude today in the courtroom of Judge Robert Lisotto, after which lawyers were to make closing arguments. Attorneys said they expect jurors to begin deliberating by early afternoon.
Willis and Wright testified that they did not know each other, though they had spoken inside the bar before the shooting.
Willis is serving a two-year sentence at Belmont Correctional Institution in St. Clairsville for unrelated drug trafficking charges.
Wright was in Judge Lisotto's courtroom in January, where he was acquitted of aggravated murder. He had been charged in connection with the shooting death of 14-year-old Joseph McKelvey of Magnolia Avenue.
Wright's first trial on the aggravated murder charge ended in a hung jury in August 2000.
Even though a jury found him innocent in January, deputy sheriffs still handcuffed him and took him back to jail because of the pending felonious assault charge. Wright has been held in the jail since then awaiting trial.
bjackson@vindy.com