25 to life for driver in fatal shooting of child

YOUNGSTOWN — A man who drove the car from which the shot that killed a 3-year-old girl was fired will serve 25 years to life in prison.

Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed the sentence this morning on Damon K. Clark in the death of Cherish M. Moreland, who was fatally shot last May 5 on the city’s East Side.

On Monday, a jury found Clark, 23, of Dogwood Lane, guilty of complicity to murder with a gun specification and guilty of complicity to discharging a firearm at or into a habitation.

The alleged gunman, Stoney Williams, 19, of Dorothy Avenue, goes on trial before Judge Sweeney on April 14.

Clark and two of his friends were asked to leave a Stewart Avenue house because they were drunk, police reports said. A few minutes later, Clark returned to Stewart Avenue at 11:08 p.m., driving the car from which Williams fired twice at a group of people standing outside, striking the Hilton Avenue girl once in the head, police reports said.