Life sentence sends message to the lawless

YOUNGSTOWN — A third Youngstown man is going to prison for life for killing Martwain Dill; Robert Bush, assistant county prosecutor, hopes the convictions send a message to those who share the murderers’ “air of lawlessness.”

Shortly after Gary Crockett, 30, of Buckeye Circle, was convicted Tuesday and sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after 33 years, Bush, chief of the criminal division in the Mahoning County Prosecutor's office, said Crockett and his co-defendants’ crime “cried out for justice.”

Bush, a former Youngstown police chief, said convicting the three men was a victory for the city because the men who killed Dill with a barrage of bullets in the middle of a busy South Side street in broad daylight apparently thought they could get away with the most brazen of crimes.

Bush and Steven Shandor, who prosecuted the three cases, said securing testimony from a witness to the shooting, a passenger in Crockett’s car and Crockett’s girlfriend helped bring the cases to trial. Shandor credited Youngstown Police Detective Rick Spotleson for his work.

Shandor said he thinks the message of the three trials is: “You can’t act this way in a civilized society.”

For more, see Wednesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com