Supervisor found dead inside car on East Side

The victim had been shot at least twice, a coroner's investigator said.
YOUNGSTOWN -- An Ohio State Penitentiary supervisor found shot to death on the East Side had a lot of friends at the prison, a spokesman says.
"To lose someone hits us hard; we grieve as a family and pray for his family," Keith Fletcher, OSP spokesman, said Friday. "We're in a state of shock.
Lt. Damon Stevenson, 34, of Highland Avenue, Warren was spotted in the back seat of his 1997 tan Cadillac Seville by a street department worker around 9 a.m. Friday. The Cadillac was parked along a remote stretch of Vittoria Avenue.
The East Side location is not far from the prison on state Route 616, Coitsville-Hubbard Road.
The street department worker initially thought the car had been stolen and abandoned. He saw the body when he looked inside and noted the victim had blood on his shirt.
Detective Sgts. John Kelty and Ron Rodway were at the crime scene midmorning on Friday, along with a crime lab officer and coroner's investigator. Kelty declined to say what kind of weapon was used.
The car was parked in a tree-lined section of Vittoria, off Wardle Avenue. No houses are close by.
Kelty said Stevenson was last seen alive Wednesday night by his girlfriend.
Frank DeMain, a coroner's investigator, said at the scene that the dead man had what appeared to be a least two gunshot wounds -- one in the head and one in the chest. He said the man had mud on him, which could mean he was shot, then placed in the car.
DeMain said Coroner David M. Kennedy would issue a ruling after an autopsy. Rigor mortis had already set in, but DeMain said he wouldn't speculate on how long the man had been dead.
Fletcher said Stevenson, a first-line supervisor, had been on medical leave since Sept. 19 but was expected to return to work.
Stevenson is the city's 32nd homicide of the year, double the number killed at this time last year. The city recorded 22 homicides in 2004.