YOUNGSTOWN Jurors await child eyewitness to testify in trial

Prosecutors want the courtroom to be closed when the 6-year-old girl takes the stand.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Jurors in Anthony Anderson's murder trial are still waiting to see 6-year-old Brea Aziz on the witness stand.
The little girl is one of two eyewitnesses to a November 1998 robbery and shooting that killed her 21-year-old mother, LaShawnda Aziz, and 4-year-old brother, DeShun Moreland. Ms. Aziz's unborn baby also died.
Brea was shot in the face, neck and left hand but survived. She was 3 at the time.
She is expected to testify against Anderson, 24, of Kenneth Street, who is on trial in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on charges of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder and aggravated robbery.
Brea will be among the last witnesses called by prosecutors, probably Monday. A co-defendant, Kevin Calwise, was called to the witness stand earlier in the week but refused to testify.
Closed court request: Assistant Prosecutor Jay Macejko filed a motion Friday asking that the courtroom be closed to the press and public when Brea testifies. He asked that only Brea's grandmother and representatives from the county victim witness office be allowed in the courtroom.
Judge R. Scott Krichbaum has not ruled on the request. Before Brea testifies, the judge will question her privately to determine whether she is competent to take the stand. She has been examined and deemed competent in the past, but lawyers want her to be tested again because of her age.
Caught on tape: On Friday, jurors saw a videotape made while Brea was in Akron Children's Hospital recovering from her wounds. In the video, made by Youngstown police, she identified Anderson as the one who came to her family's Lansdowne Boulevard home on the city's East Side and shot her.
She identified him by picking his picture out of a photo array three times and by naming him out loud.
"That's Ant," she said, pointing to Anderson's picture. "He shot me."
Prosecutors have said Anderson goes by the nickname "Ant," and that he was close friends with Wadell Casey, who lived with Ms. Aziz and her children.
Police first suspected Casey as the shooter but changed their minds after getting a tip that Anderson was involved. In her taped statement, Brea said Casey was not the one who shot her.
Anderson did not get up to watch the video. While jurors watched the tape, he sat at the defense table writing notes in a pad.
Brea also picked out a photograph of Calwise as being at the house with Anderson during the robbery and shooting, though she did not know his name.
Calwise was convicted of identical charges last year and is serving three consecutive life sentences.
Other testimony: Jamar Prieto, who also faces charges in the shootings, testified Friday afternoon that he drove Anderson and Calwise to the scene, waited for them to come back, and drove them away.
He also testified that he provided one of the guns, a .38-caliber revolver, that was used. Prieto acknowledged that he'd lied to police and a county grand jury about his own involvement in the crimes.
During cross-examination, defense attorney Louis DeFabio pointed out several inconsistencies in statements Prieto made to police and the grand jury.
Prieto originally faced the same charges as Anderson and Calwise but has pleaded guilty to reduced charges in exchange for his testimony. Prosecutors have recommended a six-year prison sentence for him.
bjackson@vindy.com