Jury finds man guilty of murder

Gregory McGee's criminal record goes back to his juvenile days.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The prosecution is recommending a 23-year prison sentence for Gregory McGee after a jury found him guilty of murder with a firearm specification in the shooting death of Charles Bush.
The eight-man, four-woman jury also found McGee, 23, of Selma Avenue, who has a prior conviction for a drug offense, guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm. McGee faces 18 years to life in prison when he is sentenced at a later date.
"This guy [McGee] has a lengthy criminal history, and I think that he went in there and murdered this guy [Bush] in cold blood," Martin P. Desmond, assistant Mahoning County prosecutor, said in support of his sentencing recommendation after the jury rendered its verdict.
McGee's criminal record goes back to his juvenile days and involves "guns and drugs and shooting, and now it's culminated with him murdering someone," Desmond said. "He's bad. The jury did a good thing in getting him off the streets for us."
After hearing testimony Wednesday and Thursday, the jury deliberated for seven hours Friday and Monday before rendering its verdict Monday afternoon in the courtroom of Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Crime scene
Bush, 21, of Lora Avenue, was fatally shot in the chest in a second-floor apartment at 30 Saranac Ave. on Aug. 25, 2006, and died later that day in St. Elizabeth Health Center.
Detective Sgt. Douglas Bobovnyik, the first police officer at the shooting scene, testified that Bush twice identified McGee as the man who shot him before Bush lost consciousness.
McGee said he acted in self-defense in a struggle after Bush threatened him, but prosecutors called the shooting a murder and said that McGee fled the scene and didn't call 911. The autopsy showed no injuries on Bush consistent with a struggle, prosecutors said.
"We had some burdens that were tough to overcome," said McGee's lawyer, Anthony P. Meranto, citing the fact that McGee made the self-defense claim in his testimony in the trial, but not when he spoke to police immediately after the shooting. Meranto said an appeal will likely be filed based on "procedural issues," such as an assertion that speedy-trial guidelines weren't followed.
Didn't believe testimony
After they rendered the verdict, jurors said they didn't believe McGee's testimony, Desmond recalled. "They said that, even if you believed everything that he [McGee] said, the best it was was a voluntary manslaughter," Desmond observed. Judge Evans gave the jurors instructions on possible lesser charges of voluntary manslaughter and reckless homicide, but the jury found McGee guilty of murder as charged.
The jury foreman declined to comment after the panel delivered the verdict.