Saturday, April 18, 2009
One of Helen Moore’s surviving children is likely to testify during the trial.
STAFF REPORT
YOUNGSTOWN — When Curtis Young goes on trial Monday in a case that could land him on death row, his attorneys will argue that Young acted in self-defense while shooting his ex-girlfriend.
Young, 26, of North Center Street, is charged with four counts of aggravated murder for firing a single shot at Helen Moore, 29, of Cassius Street, on July 31, 2007.
Police said the shot hit Moore in the neck, then hit her 8-year-old son, Ceonei Moore, in the head. It resulted in the deaths of Helen Moore, Ceonei Moore and the full-term baby still in Helen Moore’s womb.
According to court documents, Young will not deny that he fired the fatal shot.
A filing by his attorneys says Young fired the shot while “acting in self-defense as Ms. Moore was attempting to run over him in the car she was driving.”
The trial is to begin in the courtroom of Judge Maureen A. Sweeney in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Jury selection will take about a week, but testimony may take only about three days, said Martin Desmond, one of the assistant prosecutors handling the case.
Assisting Desmond will be Robert J. Andrews, another assistant prosecutor. Defense attorneys are Thomas E. Zena of Boardman and Douglas B. Taylor of New Middletown.
Young’s attorneys failed in their attempt last week to have the two aggravated-murder charges dismissed that pertain to the unborn child.
One of Zena’s and Taylor’s arguments was that the unborn child could not yet be considered a person.
But Judge Sweeney noted in a judgment entry she issued Friday that prosecutors plan to call a witness from the Mahoning County Coroner’s office to testify the baby would not have died had it not been for the death of the mother.
On a related topic, Judge Sweeney said she would rule by Monday on a defense motion to exclude from evidence a photograph of the unborn baby at a funeral home after it was removed from Helen Moore’s body.
“To picture individuals lying in a coffin is sufficiently prejudicial enough without the compounding issues related to the apparent removal of the unborn child and placing that child in clothing and in a casket to be viewed by the jury,” the defense attorneys wrote.
Prosecutors have clarified that the photo in question shows the baby clothed in an outfit he was going to wear home from the hospital after his birth and shows him lying in a rocker/bassinet.
Prosecutors add the photograph is necessary to show the baby was viable at the time of the incident, meaning it was likely to be born alive if not for the shooting.
Judge Sweeney ruled earlier she will not prohibit testimony regarding suspected crack cocaine found in Helen Moore’s clothing and other drugs found in her blood at the time of her death.
Young could get the death penalty if convicted because his indictment accuses him of crimes that involve the slaying of two or more people and the killing of victims under age 13.
Among the people likely to testify are Ashley Moore, one of three surviving children of Helen Moore. Ashley was 11 at the time of her mother’s death and riding in the car.
The cell phone records of Ashley Moore, Helen Moore, Helen Moore’s sister Mary Moore, and Young are likely to be used by the prosecution during the trial, according to court documents.
Ashley Moore was living with relatives last October in Warren when she showed up at the Warren Family Mission, pretending to be a boy named Saton D. Brown who needed help.
Ashley had left her aunt’s home and cut her hair after seeing someone who resembled Young in her neighborhood, an attorney for her family, George Kafantaris, said at the time. Young was in the Mahoning County Jail awaiting trial, however.
Ashley Moore has been in the custody of the Trumbull County Children’s Services Board since CSB workers learned her true identity.
runyan@vindy.com