AGGRAVATED MURDER TRIAL Lawyers set to give closing arguments

YOUNGSTOWN -- Closing arguments are scheduled today in the trial of Ceyanie D. Dubose, 28, accused of killing a man on the city's South Side nearly four years ago.
Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains and defense lawyers Douglas B. Taylor and Ronald E. Knickerbocker ended their cases Wednesday afternoon. The trial began Tuesday.
After summations by the lawyers, Judge James C. Evans will instruct the jurors on the law they must apply in the case when they begin their deliberations.
Dubose, who listed a Lora Avenue address, is charged with aggravated murder with a firearm specification. He could face life imprisonment on the murder charge and an additional three years on the firearm specification.
Police said he killed Marcus Bradley, also known as Marcus Moore, on Nov. 12, 2001, on the city's South Side. Bradley was shot three times in the head, and police found his body at Mercer Avenue and Hoffman Street.
Prosecution's witnesses
Gains called Wilson Taylor and Bob E. Kelly to the witness stand. Taylor, a convicted drug dealer, and Kelly, convicted of manslaughter, received reduced prison sentences in exchange for testifying against Dubose.
Taylor placed Dubose in the same car with Bradley the night of the shooting. Kelly said Dubose's cousin, Edward L. Dubose, 23, of Albert showed him where there was blood in the seat of a late-model Cadillac.
Edward Dubose faces identical charges and will go on trial later this year.
State's witness Detective Sgt. Daryl Martin of the Youngstown Police Department, who investigated the Bradley murder, told Gains that in 2002 he got a call from a federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent that the Duboses may have been involved with the homicide. He later got a statement from Taylor and Kelly that corroborated his investigation of the Duboses.
Based on their statements and Martin's investigation, he got arrest warrants for the Duboses in June 2003.
Defense testimony
The main defense witness Taylor and Knickerbocker called to the stand was Angelique McKinney of Liberty.
She said Dubose was with her the night of the shooting. She said Dubose came to her Liberty apartment to bring some medicine for their son around 9:30 or 10 p.m. Nov 12. They watched television and went to sleep. Dubose never left the apartment, she said.
McKinney said she was awakened around 6 a.m. the next day by a Liberty police officer who said he was looking for Dubose. She lied and said Dubose wasn't there.
When Dubose asked who was at the door, McKinney said the police were looking for him. Dubose then got dressed and talked with police.
They had been called to the apartment complex because of a report of a suspicious man in a car parked in the lot. It turned out the man was Edward Dubose. Edward told police he was there to pick up his cousin. He was driving a 1989 Oldsmobile.
Liberty police eventually had the car towed because neither Dubose had a valid driver's license.
Disputed claims
Under cross-examination, McKinney told Gains she didn't tell police that Dubose was with her the night Bradley was shot because she believed police wouldn't believe her story.
She lied to the Liberty police because she didn't want to cause any trouble that might have her landlord evict her and her child, she told Gains.
McKinney said she believed Dubose worked for Valley Foods back in 2001. But Gains brought in a rebuttal witness, the office manager for the company, who said Dubose worked there from May to June 2003. He never worked for the company in 2001 or 2002.
Before beginning their defense, Taylor asked Judge Evans for a directed verdict of acquittal, saying the state had not proved Dubose committed the crime and that he committed the crime by prior calculation and design.
Gains argued that Taylor saw Dubose with Bradley the night Bradley was killed and there was sufficient evidence presented that a murder was committed. Judge Evans allowed the trial to continue.