Police connect victim, suspect

The defendant did not
present any witnesses.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGS-TOWN — Since at least February, detectives have sensed that the broad-daylight shooting death of Martwain Dill on Nov. 3, 2006, was part of an ongoing feud among former friends.

In April, Detective Sgt. Daryl Martin of the Youngstown Police Department said Dill’s killing may have led to a retaliatory quadruple homicide Jan. 29, and that may have led to another shooting death March 13.

The quadruple homicide also led to an increase in traffic stops in the city, something city officials hoped would interrupt violent crime before it happened.

Martin said Dill’s death is likely to have come about because of a feud over transportation of drugs from Atlanta to Youngstown.

On Friday, during the final day of testimony in the aggravated-murder trial of Gary Crockett, who is standing trial in Dill’s death, Detective Rick Spotleson of the Youngstown Police Department testified about events that appear to have led up to Dill’s death.

The trial is being held in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court before Visiting Judge Charles J. Bannon.

Spotleson said that when he started to consider Gary Crockett as a suspect in Dill’s death, he questioned the 30-year-old Buckeye Circle man and asked him whether he was feuding with Dill.

Crockett, 30, denied it, but he did admit that he had recently gone to the Atlanta area with Dill, 23. Also on the trip was Crockett’s first cousin, Anthony M. Crockett, 23, who later died in the Jan. 29 quadruple homicide at 548 W. Evergreen Ave.

Spotleson said he also learned of another connection between Dill and Gary Crockett when he received information that a car parked outside a house where Crockett frequently stayed on John Street was shot up the same night that Dill’s house was hit by gunfire.

After the quadruple homicide, family members of the victims said they believed the feud appeared to be responsible for the deaths but said they didn’t know what its origin was. Anthony M. Crockett’s family members said he was also wounded by gunfire twice in the months leading up to his death.

Defense attorney Samuel Amendolara spent much of his time during cross-examination of Spotleson asking about an AK-47 assault rifle that Gary Crockett told him he owned but which was in the possession of a relative.

Spotleson said the rifle was taken as evidence and tested at the state’s crime lab, but the weapon did not match the shell casings found at the scene of Dill’s shooting at Glenwood and Earle avenues.

In earlier testimony, a crime scene technician said the shell casings did match shell casings found in the bedroom drawer of the John Street home where Crockett was living.

Spotleson was the last witness presented by the prosecution. The defense rested without presenting any witnesses. Closing arguments will be given Monday morning.

If convicted in the case, Crockett could be sentenced to 20, 25 or 30 years to life in prison.

runyan@vindy.com