Tips from public lead to arrests in killing

A Vindicator inquiry is getting a drug dealer off the streets for 10 months.
& lt;a href=mailto:meade@vindy.com & gt;By PATRICIA MEADE & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Community shock after the death of 3-month-old Jiyen C. Dent Jr. allowed police to track two suspects, the police chief says.
Thinking back over the tips that rolled in, Police Chief Robert E. Bush Jr. shook his head. Everyone, he said, wanted the horrendous crime to be solved.
A person who had attended East High School in the 1970s when Bush, then a rookie cop, worked security there, called with two suspects' names. The tip panned out, as did many others, Bush said.
Bush said leads were passed to Detective Sgts. Jose Morales and Ron Rodway, who enlisted the aid of Detective Sgts. Pat Kelly and John Kelty in the street crimes unit. The street crimes unit, Bush said, identified people, cars and homes associated with the suspects.
Everyone involved "did one hell of a job," Bush said.
Wayne P. Gilliam, 21, of East Avondale Avenue, and John Drummond Jr., 25, of Allerton Court, are suspects in the drive-by shooting that killed the baby at his parents' Rutledge Drive home late Sunday night.
The infant, who had been in a swing in the living room, died from a wound to the head fired by an assault rifle.
Morales said the shooting likely involves a South Side-East Side rivalry.
Bad blood
Gilliam, the detective said, is an East Sider. Jiyen C. Dent, the baby's father, had lived on the South Side until a week or so ago, when he moved to the house on Rutledge with his son's mother, Latoya L. Butler, 22.
"It's all over territory," Morales said. "Dent was just someone who may have hung with guys who had bad blood with Wayne."
Morales said the bad blood may be linked to an old murder.
New Hope Academy pupils were to hold a prayer vigil at noon today on East Federal Street for the baby. The prayer was to pay tribute to the life ended by an act of violence.
Gilliam, meanwhile, is being held at the Mahoning County jail on an unrelated felonious assault charge. He was arrested Thursday morning at the house he shares with his girlfriend.
A murder warrant was issued Thursday afternoon for Drummond. He was arrested shortly thereafter and held in jail pending arraignment today in municipal court.
On March 19, Drummond pleaded no contest in municipal court to driving under suspension. Judge Elizabeth A. Kobly ordered that he spend 90 days on electronically monitored house arrest.
It's possible that his electronic bracelet had not been hooked up yet. Verification could not be made before press time.
Vindicator files show that in 1999, Drummond and two others were charged with the aggravated murder of Maurice McElroy, 20, of Dryden Avenue, who was shot to death in his car May 14, 1999.
After jury selection in November 1999, the prosecutor's office dismissed the charges against all three when witnesses changed their stories.
Vindicator files also show that Gilliam was charged in the January 2001 drive-by shooting death of Anton Flint, 18, of Forest View Avenue. The charge was later dismissed.
Drug case
Gilliam, while out on bond in the aggravated-murder case, was charged with aggravated trafficking in crack cocaine and complicity to trafficking in marijuana. Police said undercover operatives bought drugs from Gilliam and his cousin, James L. Mosley IV, at a house on Mumford Drive.
In August 2001, the drug charges were dismissed on the condition that Gilliam testify against his cousin at trial. There was no trial in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, so Gilliam didn't have to testify.
Mosley's case was reset many times and then in April 2002, the state filed a motion to dismiss one count and Mosley pleaded no contest to trafficking in crack, the clerk's office said. In June 2002, he was sentenced to 10 months in prison by Judge James C. Evans, who stayed the sentence pending appeal.
The notice of appeal was never filed, the clerk's office said Thursday, when The Vindicator checked.
Mosley's lawyer, Charles E. Curry, said he thought he filed the notice of appeal, but when he checked his files Thursday, he realized he hadn't.
Judge Evans said he would order Curry to have Mosley report to the Mahoning County jail by 3 p.m. today for transport to the Lorain Correctional Institution to serve 10 months. If Mosley doesn't report, a warrant will be issued for his arrest, the judge said.
Judge Evans said if The Vindicator hadn't checked on Mosley's appeal, his court would not have been aware that it hadn't been filed because it is not notified. The judge said he thought the prosecutor's office would have kept track of the case.
& lt;a href=mailto:meade@vindy.com & gt;meade@vindy.com & lt;/a & gt;