YOUNGSTOWN Retrial in murder case results in same verdict

The defendant's first conviction had been overturned.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The last time around, Christopher Scott didn't get a chance to offer certain witnesses to present his side of the story.
This time, he did.
But it didn't change the result.
In 1997, a Mahoning County Common Pleas Court found him guilty of aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder. And, on Thursday, another county jury found him guilty of the same charges.
Scott, 23, still insists he didn't kill ex-girlfriend Lori Townsend in January 1997. His lawyer, Michael J. Rich, will again appeal.
"Mr. Scott threw his life away," said Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains, who tried the case. "He destroyed one life and had one life taken away -- for nothing."
Scott's convictions stem from the shotgun shooting of Townsend, who was a passenger in a car with Albert Byrd. Witnesses have said Byrd was the intended target.
Factors in case
Gains said factors in the case included testimony from Byrd that he saw Scott fire the weapon and a gun residue test showing that Scott had fired a weapon.
Rich said there are issues on which the case can again be appealed.
"I'm disappointed," the attorney said. "He still denies any wrongdoing."
Scott had first been tried and convicted in 1997, and Judge Maureen Cronin sentenced him to life in prison.
The 7th District Court of Appeals overturned the conviction, however, because Judge Cronin had kept out testimony from three Mahoning County jail inmates who said they had heard another man admit the murder.
This time, Judge Cronin allowed the testimony, but only one person could be found, Rich said. Donnell Cuthbertson, 29, is in state prison on murder, aggravated assault and burglary convictions.
He testified that he was in the county jail in 1997 at the same time as Scott and Kendrick Mickel and overheard Mickel confess the crime.
Mickel and Scott were together at the time of the shooting, witnesses said.
Was co-defendant
Mickel initially had been a co-defendant with Scott, but charges against him were dropped. Mickel never testified. In the first trial, he asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, Gains said. He is now being held in a federal prison and was not called to testify, the prosecutor said.
Also at this trial, Scott's girlfriend testified that Mickel admitted the killing, Rich said. But Gains said she helped seal Scott's fate, by confirming that he owned a weapon that resembled a shotgun and clarifying Scott's motive to want to kill Byrd.
viviano@vindy.com