Opening statements to begin in teen’s capital murder jury trial

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Michael Davis

By Peter H. Milliken

YOUNGSTOWN — Opening statements in the capital murder jury trial of Michael A. Davis will be at 8:30 a.m. today before Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Davis, 18, of Bennington Avenue, is on trial on a 29-count aggravated arson and aggravated murder indictment with death penalty specifications in the Jan. 23 East Side house fire that killed six people.

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 blaze. Five other people escaped from the burning house at 1645 Stewart Ave.

The prosecution expects its case will take three days to present. The defense expects its case will take no more than two days to present.

Twelve regular jurors and two alternates were seated when jury selection concluded Wednesday morning. The process began with a Friday orientation attended by 106 potential jurors.

Each potential juror was then interviewed individually by the judge and the prosecuting and defense lawyers out of earshot of other prospective jurors.

Judge Krichbaum, who has been a judge since 1991, said the process went quickly because the lawyers heeded his request to minimize repetition in their questioning of prospective jurors. The judge limited each side to 30 minutes of questioning per potential juror.

“If everybody gets to the point, then it shouldn’t take too long,” to seat a jury, the judge said.

Judge Krichbaum remembered a capital murder case, where he was a defense lawyer, in which jury selection took three weeks. In that case, he recalled each side had one hour to question each juror.

Jury selection began Monday afternoon and continues today for the other capital murder trial, that of Bennie L. Adams, in which opening statements are expected Tuesday morning before Judge Timothy E. Franken.

Adams is going on trial in the 1985 strangulation slaying of Gina Tenney, a 19-year-old Youngstown State University student, who was his Ohio Avenue duplex neighbor. Tenney’s body was found floating in the Mahoning River.

Adams was indicted last year after a DNA match was found in evidence police had preserved for 22 years.

The Davis and Adams cases are the first death-penalty trials here in 4 1‚Ñ2 years.

milliken@vindy.com