Man found guilty of April ’08 murder

By Ed Runyan

YOUNGSTOWN — It was not clear what the jury would do when it came back into the courtroom Wednesday afternoon after deliberating more than a full day on the fate of Lamar McKinney, accused of murder and felonious assault.

In fact, it appeared the jury had deadlocked because about 2 p.m., it told Judge Lou D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court it couldn’t reach a verdict.

But minutes after that, it notified the judge that it had agreed on one.

And when the verdict was read in open court, Lamar McKinney, 21, of Broadway, had been found guilty on both charges, meaning he will get at least 18 years to life in prison. He will be sentenced later.

The charges accused McKinney of killing Marcus Easterly, 31, of Lanterman Road, and injuring Easterly’s cousin, Derrell Easterly, 22, of Hammaker Street, in the Westlake Terrace housing project April 23, 2008.

Kasey Shidel, an assistant county prosecutor, said during closing arguments that all the bullets recovered from Westlake that day came from the same type of gun — a .45 caliber.

And none of the state’s 18 witnesses testified to there being more than one gun used that day.

Shidel said it appears one of the first two shots fired hit Marcus Easterly in the foot and that the third shot hit Derrell Easterly in the leg.

Of the next four shots, one hit Marcus Easterly in the forearm, one hit him in the knee and two others hit him in the back, Shidel said.

What started out as a fight among boys drew in dozens of bystanders and eventually drew in the Easterlys and McKinney, Shidel said.

What makes this murder, he said, is that Mc-Kinney is the only person who had a gun.

Marcus Easterly’s father, Arthur McLendon of Youngstown, said his son had been in some trouble with the law in the past but was “basically a good kid” and was “trying to get his life together.” He said senseless killing of this type is destructive to both families involved.

“When a young man commits a crime like this, he not only hurts the other person’s family, he also hurts his own family. I hope poor, black people will stop hurting one another and start loving one another.”

Meanwhile, Lee Jones, 24, a cousin of McKinney’s who attended the trial, said he didn’t believe the evidence pointed to McKinney as a murderer.

The dozens of people who were there watching the fight last April know who had guns that day, and the jury didn’t hear from any of those people, Jones said.

“For them to say, ‘Mar started shooting first,’ that’s a lie,” he said outside court while waiting for jurors to return a verdict.

Since gun residue was found on the hands of both McKinney and Marcus Easterly and because no gun was found at the scene belonging to any of the three, how can a jury say that McKinney was the only one firing, Jones said.

Jones said none of the individuals involved in the fight lives at Westlake, and all of them got along fine until the Easterlys were shot.

runyan@vindy.com