Mayor awaits internal probe about shell-casings mixup

The gun used in the homicide was not found here, police said.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — Mayor Jay Williams isn’t opposed to an independent review of an evidence mixup but wants to know the outcome of an internal investigation first.

The police department’s Internal Affairs Division is completing its investigation of shell casings collected nearly six years ago — one at a drive-by shooting and one at a homicide. Both involve the same suspect. The murder charge was handled by Akron police because the crime started there with a kidnapping and ended in Youngstown with the fatal shooting.

The murder charge was dismissed last month in Summit County when questions were raised about the shell casings, an allegation that they had been switched by Youngstown police.

“My position has been from the beginning to conclude the internal investigation. It would be somewhat irresponsible to comment prior to that,” Williams said Thursday. “There were a number of agencies involved. ... It may potentially warrant an independent review.”

All parties involved want to get to the bottom of it, the mayor said.

He said for a defense attorney and prosecutor, it’s very easy to assign blame. But before assigning blame, he wants to conclude the local investigation. He said he’s not adverse to an independent review.

The shell casings from the homicide and drive-by shooting were sent to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation. The gun from the homicide, though, was found on the suspect in Pennsylvania and went from there to BCI — it was never here, Lt. Rod Foley, head of the YPD Internal Affairs Division, has said.

Last month, police said the casing at the homicide scene matches the gun that was test-fired in Pennsylvania but the casing from the driveby did not come from the gun used in the homicide. The mixup, police said, involves labeling of both casings that were sent to BCI. There’s no indication that when BCI received the mislabeled shell casing in 2002 that Youngstown police were notified and questioned.

The Akron Beacon Journal reported this week that Summit County Common Pleas Judge Patricia A. Cosgrove has decided to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of compromised ballistic evidence that led to dismissal of the murder case. Judge Cosgrove said she wants the case to be investigated by someone with no Summit or Mahoning County ties and that her proposed order will be discussed at the monthly meeting of Summit’s general division judges next week.

If there were switched shell casings, Youngstown Police Chief Jimmy F. Hughes has said it was simply a mistake.