Trial starts in fatal shooting

YOUNGSTOWN — The aggravated murder trial has begun for a third defendant charged in the daylight shooting death of Martwain Dill on Glenwood Avenue more than a year ago.

Jury selection began Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for Gary Crockett, 30, of Buckeye Circle. He is charged with aggravated murder with a firearms specification, complicity to aggravated murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Two other city men already have been convicted of complicity to aggravated murder for their roles in the crime — Bertrum Moore, 19, of Whitney Avenue, and Eric Lewis, 19, of Kenmore Avenue.

After being convicted by separate juries, Moore, the driver of the car containing the assailants, was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, while Lewis was sent to prison for at least 33 years to life for firing a weapon at Dill.

An autopsy could not determine what gun caused the head injury that killed Dill.

Crockett is accused of being the other man who shot at Dill that day.

The case is being heard by Visiting Judge Charles J. Bannon.

Police said Lewis and Crockett fired into Dill’s pickup truck at the intersection of Glenwood and Earle avenues about 11 a.m. Nov. 3, 2006. Police said Moore, Lewis and Keith B. Tillis Jr., 19, left the Life Skills Center on Market Street together that morning before picking up Crockett and finding Dill.

Tillis initially was charged with aggravated murder in the crime also, but those charges were later dropped after he testified for the prosecution in the Lewis trial.