Lawyer for man charged in fire that killed 6 to seek exclusions

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — A lawyer for the man charged with setting the Jan. 23 East Side house fire that killed six people said he expects to file a motion to have some of his client’s statements to police excluded from trial evidence.

Ronald Yarwood, who represents Michael A. Davis, 18, of Bennington Avenue, told Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court about the forthcoming motion in a Wednesday pretrial hearing.

The judge gave Yarwood two weeks to file that motion and he gave the prosecution a week to respond in writing after it is filed.

Arguments concerning that motion will be heard in the next pretrial hearing at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 12, the judge said.

Davis faces an Oct. 6 jury trial on a 29-count aggravated murder and aggravated arson indictment with death-penalty specifications in what authorities call the largest mass murder in the city’s history.

Carol Crawford, 46; her daughter, Jennifer R. Crawford, 23; and Jennifer’s four children, Ranaisha, 8; Jeannine, 5; Aleisha, 3; and Brandon, 2, died in the Stewart Avenue blaze.

J. Michael Thompson, assistant county prosecutor, said Wednesday he provided to the defense the coroner’s reports from the autopsies on the six victims and the names of the two Cleveland doctors who performed the autopsies.