Killer gets 10 years for ‘vigilante’ action

By Ed Runyan

The defendant could have gotten a life prison sentence.

WARREN — In sentencing Mario Q. Sellers to 10 years in prison for the killing of Joseph D. Daniel outside Benji Brown’s Bar and Grill last July, Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge John M. Stuard said Sellers made a mistake in using “vigilante-style” retribution against someone he thought had stolen from him.

“You have to use the law” to remedy any wrongs that may have been committed against you, Judge Stuard said. “It’s just so darned senseless,” he said of the shooting that took the life of the 33-year-old Warren man July 29, 2007.

“I don’t know what decision led you to shoot Mr. Daniels, but there’s nothing more final than taking a person’s life,” Judge Stuard said.

Daniel’s brother, Mauerio Daniel, gave similar remarks before Sellers, 24, of Austin Avenue Southwest in Warren, received his prison sentence.

“He [Sellers] had an opportunity to walk away, but he took on the role of law enforcement officer to take the life of my brother,” Daniel told Judge Stuard.

He added that Sellers had begun to shed tears in the courtroom, but the Daniel family has “been crying for 345 days,” since the shooting.

Josephine Daniel, the victim’s mother, said her son worked and took care of his family of seven children.

“He was trying to get home, and they stopped him from getting home,” she said.

Sellers, the Trumbull County prosecutor’s office and Judge John M. Stuard agreed to the 10-year sentence in a plea agreement.

Sellers was indicted on a charge of murder with a firearm specification that could have landed him in prison for 18 years to life if convicted.

Sellers pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter and a specification that he committed the offense with a gun. Those offenses carried a maximum penalty of 13 years in prison.

Chris Becker, assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, said the 2:13 a.m. shooting occurred because Daniel, Sellers and others were feuding over a robbery committed against Sellers about a year before Daniel’s death.

However, an investigation by Warren police indicated that Daniel had nothing to do with the robbery, Becker said.

runyan@vindy.com