Prosecutors want Judge Durkin off murder case

YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County prosecutors have asked Judge John M. Durkin to remove himself from the case of accused baby killer Terrance Tate because they say the judge has become a potential witness regarding newly discovered evidence.

Judge Durkin, of common pleas court, said in a July 23 meeting with prosecution and defense lawyers that he would take the request under advisement and make a decision as quickly as possible.

Tate is charged with aggravated murder with a death-penalty specification in the fatal beating of Javonte Covington on his first birthday in April 2006.

Dawn Cantalamessa, an assistant county prosecutor, asked the judge to disqualify himself because the prosecution didn’t receive from him copies of letters Tate wrote to the judge from county jail in May 2006 and August 2007.

The 2006 letter “had facts of the case that could be used as essentially substantive evidence,” Cantalamessa told the judge during the meeting in his chambers.

“What we think now is that you become a witness, because this is what we would argue is newly discovered evidence,” Cantalamessa told the judge. “My first inclination is to graciously ask you to recuse yourself.”

Read more in Thursday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com