Jury to decide assault verdict

By Ed Runyan

The jury began deliberating Tuesday afternoon.

YOUNGSTOWN — The prosecution asked jurors to use their common sense to examine the actions of Duniek Christian on July 1 and July 2, 2005, and see that he knowingly put police officers’ lives at stake.

Defense attorney Thomas Zena, conversely, said the evidence in Christian’s felonious assault trial gave no proof that Christian intended to hurt anyone, and that his actions back that up.

The jury of 10 women and two men began deliberations Tuesday afternoon and will resume today.

Christian, 23, of North Garland Avenue, was the driver of a stolen Cadillac that collided with an unmarked Youngstown police cruiser before speeding through the East Side with three men firing assault rifles out the window at seven police officers.

Zena said testimony that Christian pulled the Cadillac to the side of the road when a police cruiser first approached with its flashing lights on shows that Christian had no intention of breaking any laws. He drove the Cadillac farther after that only because co-defendant Jumal Edwards forced him to.

Mark Hockensmith, an assistant county prosecutor, said in his closing arguments in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court that a variety of details point to Christian’s being more involved in the crime than that.

Christian was arrested July 2 with Edwards, 25, and Craig Franklin, 20, in an apartment where Christian’s girlfriend lived. Why would Christian spend time in the same apartment with Edwards on July 2 if Edwards had just threatened him with an assault rifle on July 1? Hockensmith asked.

When Christian bailed out of the Cadillac and started running into some woods, all four men ran in the same direction, despite Christian’s contention that all he wanted to do was get away from the three other men in the Cadillac.

In earlier trials, Edwards was sentenced to 97 years in prison, and Franklin got 105 years.

Christian said he didn’t realize that there were guns in the car until about the time the guns started being fired. But there were three large assault rifles in the back of a two-door Cadillac, and those would be hard to miss, Hockensmith said.

Police say Edwards initiated the gunbattle with police July 1 when he went to Mount Zion Baptist Church on Wilson Avenue around 11:15 a.m., distraught over the recent death of his 18-year-old brother, Deandre Edwards, in a gunbattle.

Edwards asked for and received prayer from church secretary Althea Robinson and another woman. But Edwards returned to the church a short time later, pointed a gun at Robinson and took the keys to her Cadillac.

A man familiar with what happened at the church later spotted the Cadillac on Oak at Shehy Street and called 911, which caused members of the Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force to close in on the Cadillac around 12:15 p.m.

Christian said he didn’t know there were guns in the Cadillac when he got in, and drove the car for Edwards only so he could get to his mother’s house.

Edwards testified Monday he threatened to shoot Christian if he didn’t drive off when confronted by police.

As Christian drove the Cadillac after a collision with an unmarked police cruiser at Oak Street and North Garland Avenue, three men in the Cadillac opened fire on seven Youngstown police officers, shattering the windshield on one cruiser but not injuring anyone.

The Cadillac was abandoned on North Pearl Street.

If convicted on nine counts of felonious assault with firearm specifications, he could be sentenced to 125 years in prison.

runyan@vindy.com