Trial hinges on intent of shooter

Shooting at point-blank range means intent to kill, a prosecutor says.

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — A prosecutor told the jury Allen K. Frost purposely killed Gregory Sopher, but the defense lawyer said Sopher’s death was unintentional.

The lawyers made their opening statements Tuesday in Frost’s trial on a murder charge with a gun specification. The case is before Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

“He killed a man. He needs to be held responsible for that,” Robert J. Andrews, assistant county prosecutor, said of Frost, 37, of Crandall Avenue.

“The defendant chose to get the gun. The defendant chose to point the gun at Greg Sopher’s head. The defendant chose to pull the trigger,” Andrews told the seven-woman, five-man jury.

“When you shoot a gun at somebody, especially when you shoot at their head from a very short distance, you’re shooting to kill that person,” the prosecutor said.

“He doesn’t understand how the gun went off ... He did not intend to purposely kill Greg Sopher,” defense lawyer Martin E. Yavorcik said of his client.

Sopher, 18, of Canfield, went to Frost’s residence to buy and use drugs, Yavorcik said. Frost had turned to drug dealing to pay his bills after he lost his job because of a stroke he suffered at age 35 and was denied disability, Yavorcik said.

The prosecution and defense agree that Sopher and Frost had bet money on a video game, which Sopher lost in Frost’s residence before the Oct. 27, 2007, shooting. But beyond that, their accounts differ.

As Sopher and two other visitors were preparing to leave, Sopher discovered he was missing all of his money, not just the $50 he had paid after losing the game. He asked Frost if he had seen that money, without accusing Frost of stealing it, Andrews said.

However, Frost took offense, said he wouldn’t tolerate being disrespected in his house, pointed a gun at Sopher’s head, saying: ‘You don’t think I’ll do it, do you?,’ and pulled the trigger, Andrews told the jury.

Yavorcik said his client would testify that Sopher became extremely upset after losing the video game, and that Sopher took off his shirt, flexed his muscles, and wanted to fight. Frost, who was weakened from the stroke, wanted none of that, ordered Sopher to leave and pulled the pistol, Yavorcik said.

After the pistol discharged, Frost called 911, saying he thought he had just killed someone, waited on his porch for police and admitted to them that he fired the fatal shot, Yavorcik said.

“He’s upset and he’s devastated,” Yavorcik said of his client.