Selection of jurors likely to end today

By Peter H. Milliken

Authorities believe a single bullet caused the death of all three victims.

YOUNGSTOWN — Selection of 12 jurors and two alternates was expected to be completed today in the capital-murder trial of Curtis Young.

Young, 26, of North Center Street, is charged with the July 31, 2007, aggravated murders of his ex-girlfriend, Helen Moore, 29, of Cassius Street, her full-term fetus and her 8-year-old son, Ceonei.

After completion of the seven-day jury-selection process in the courtroom of Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, jurors were to view the Center Street shooting scene today, and then hear opening statements from the lawyers and testimony from prosecution witnesses.

The charges against Young carry firearm and death-penalty specifications. The death specifications say Young purposely killed two or more people and purposely killed two victims under age 13.

The defense says Young fired the fatal shot in self-defense as Moore tried to run him over him with the car she was driving.

The shooting followed what police described as a domestic situation and what witnesses described as a love triangle. Young had been at Moore’s home, where they argued. Moore’s sister, Mary, a witness to that argument, told police Young threatened the lives of Helen Moore and her children during that argument, according to the coroner’s report.

Helen Moore left her home driving her car, with Ceonei as a front-seat passenger and her two daughters in the back seat, followed by Young driving his car and Mary Moore driving yet another car, according to the coroner’s report.

Using her cellular phone, Mary Moore was advising a 911 dispatcher of their location and direction of travel, the coroner’s report said. Judge Sweeney ruled Monday that the 911 tape may be played once for the jurors during the trial after the tape is authenticated.

Accident investigators were not able to determine whether Helen Moore lost control of her car before or after she was shot.

But the coroner’s report quotes witness statements that Young emerged from his car on Center Street and shot into Moore’s car, which overturned a short distance away.

Helen Moore’s car left Center Street near Young’s residence and came to rest on its passenger side. Firefighters used the Jaws of Life to remove the car’s roof.

Helen Moore and her fetus, due to be born five days later, died at the shooting scene shortly after the crash, and Ceonei was pronounced dead the next morning in St. Elizabeth Health Center.

The coroner ruled all the deaths homicides, saying Helen Moore died of a gunshot wound to the neck that injured her spinal cord, the fetus died of oxygen deprivation due to his mother’s death and Ceonei died of a gunshot wound to his head.

Police said they believed the same bullet that passed through Helen Moore’s neck lodged in Ceonei’s head, where it was recovered during his autopsy.

The case is being prosecuted by Martin P. Desmond and Robert J. Andrews, assistant county prosecutors. Thomas E. Zena and Douglas B. Taylor are the defense lawyers.

If the jurors convict Young of any of the death-penalty specifications, they will return at a later date to hear testimony about what the penalty should be.

They then have the options of recommending 25 years to life in prison, 30 to life, life without parole or death.

The judge will then make the final sentencing decision but cannot impose a death sentence if the jury recommends life.