MAHONING COUNTY Austintown man pleads guilty to voluntary manslaughter

Police said the men argued over a debt for living expenses.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- An assistant prosecutor is recommending a 12-year prison term for a 30-year-old Austintown man who killed a friend during an argument over money.
Raymond Crites of East Radio Road pleaded guilty Wednesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to one count of voluntary manslaughter with a firearm specification.
Assistant Prosecutor Patrick R. Pochiro recommended that Crites be sentenced to nine years in prison for the voluntary manslaughter charge. The firearm specification carries a mandatory three-year sentence. By law, the sentences must be consecutive.
Judge R. Scott Krichbaum ordered that a background check be done on Crites before sentencing, which is scheduled for June 24. Crites will remain in the county jail until then.
Crites was originally charged with murder, but prosecutors amended it to voluntary manslaughter in exchange for his guilty plea. Pochiro said the reduction and plea ensured that Crites will go to a penitentiary for killing 33-year-old John Deiley last summer.
About the case
Defense attorney Anthony P. Meranto said Crites once rented a room from Deiley but was kicked out for failing to pay about $400 for living expenses Deiley said he was owed. Meranto said the money was for rent and some Internet purchases.
Deiley found Crites at the Steel Street home of a mutual friend and confronted him about the debt. The argument escalated and Crites shot Deiley once in the head. No gun was recovered, but police said the weapon was a 9 mm handgun.
Meranto said that had the case gone to trial, he would have argued that Crites shot Deiley in self-defense. Pochiro said that's part of why he made the plea bargain.
"Whenever you go to trial with a jury, it's like a crapshoot," he said. "They could find him innocent, and then this murder goes unpunished."
Crites had originally pleaded innocent by reason of insanity, but a court-ordered mental evaluation determined he was sane at the time of the shooting.
bjackson@vindy.com