YOUNGSTOWN Driver found guilty in death

Sentencing was scheduled for this afternoon.
By BOB JACKSONand PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS
YOUNGSTOWN -- Wayne Gilliam could face 23 years to life to 74 years to life in prison when Judge Maureen A. Cronin sentences him for complicity in the shooting death of 3-month-old Jiyen C. Dent Jr.
The jury of 11 women and one man deliberated for five hours before finding Gilliam, 21, guilty of complicity on all counts Tuesday evening.
These are complicity to: aggravated murder of the baby, attempted aggravated murder of and felonious assault on the baby's parents, Jiyen C. Dent Sr. and Latoya Butler, with firearms specifications, and shooting into an inhabited dwelling.
Sentencing was to be at 1 p.m. today.
"We think it's a very fair verdict. He got a fair trial. He was guilty, and the jury found him guilty in five hours," said Tim Franken, assistant Mahoning County prosecutor.
"This is something we cannot permit," Franken said. "This is killing of an infant. What type of civilization would we be if we permitted that type of thing to happen?"
Gilliam won't be eligible for parole for at least 20 years, Franken said.
Defense lawyer Damian Billak declined to comment after the verdict.
In testimony earlier in the day, a close friend said Gilliam wasn't hiding from police when he showed up at a Whitman Lane house moments after a nearby house was sprayed with gunfire in March.
Witness for defense
Leonard Schroeder Jr., who lives in the house on Whitman, said Gilliam just wanted to borrow a shirt from him to wear to a job interview the next day. "We argued about it," Schroeder said. "I didn't want him to take a good one."
Schroeder was the only witness to testify on behalf of Gilliam, who was on trial in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Gilliam did not take the witness stand.
Prosecutors say Gilliam drove another man, John Drummond Jr., to Rutledge and waited in his car while Drummond got out and fired at least 10 shots from an AK47 assault rifle into a house across the street. Bullets ripped through the house, killing the 3-month-old baby in the living room.
"Those weren't warning shots," assistant prosecutor Kelly Johns told jurors in her closing argument. "Those shots were intended to kill." The baby's parents also were in the house but were not hit by the gunfire.
Johns said after the shots were fired, Drummond got back into the car with the assault rifle and Gilliam drove them to Schroeder's house. Schroeder said he and Gilliam have been "very good friends" for about three or four years.
He said Gilliam called him the day before the shooting and asked to borrow a shirt for the interview with a trucking company. Gilliam had recently obtained a commercial driver's license and was looking for a job, Schroeder said.
What happened
Schroeder said he was in his house around 11:30 p.m. March 24 when he heard gunfire outside. He looked out his front door to see what was going on but saw nothing.
A few minutes later, Gilliam showed up to borrow the shirt, he said. Under cross-examination by Franken, Schroeder said Drummond was with Gilliam. When Schroeder asked about the gunfire, Gilliam told him that "some fools" were shooting guns into the air.
Drummond, of Allerton Court, is being held in the county jail awaiting trial. Charged with aggravated murder, Drummond is scheduled to go on trial Jan. 8, and the prosecution is seeking the death penalty for him, Franken said.
bjackson@vindy.com