Murder retrial gets under way

YOUNGSTOWN — Opening statements were to be made today in the retrial of Shon D. Rankin on a murder charge in the June 9, 2001, shooting death of Raymond Hayes outside a South Side bar.

The new jury trial before Judge Timothy E. Franken of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, which began Monday, follows a trial last July that resulted in a hung jury.

In July, Judge Charles J. Bannon declared a mistrial after a jury couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict after 21⁄2 days of deliberations.

Hayes, 32, of Mistletoe Avenue, was shot once in the back at 2 a.m. with a .22-caliber handgun outside Larry’s Lounge on Hillman Street on the city’s South Side after what police said was a yearlong grudge.

Rankin, 28, of East Auburndale Avenue, was secretly indicted and arrested in February 2007 after a jail inmate gave prosecutors information for a direct presentment to the county grand jury.

The case is being prosecuted by Steven D. Shandor, assistant county prosecutor. John Jeffrey Limbian is the defense lawyer.