Jury selected for trial of man charged with killing ex-girlfriend, fetus, boy

staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — A jury of nine women and three men has been seated for the capital murder trial of Curtis Young.

The seven-day process of jury selection was completed Tuesday before Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. In addition to the 12 regular jurors, three alternates were chosen — two of them female and one male.

Young, 26, of North Center Street, is charged with aggravated murder with firearm and death- penalty specifications in the July 31, 2007, shooting deaths of his ex-girlfriend, Helen Moore, 29, of Cassius Street, her full-term fetus, and her 8-year-old son, Ceonei.

Jurors will visit various East Side locations connected to the case this morning, including the Center Street homicide scene.

Opening statements, however, will be deferred until 9 a.m. Monday, and prosecution witnesses will begin testifying that day.

The prosecuting and defense lawyers asked, and the judge agreed, to defer opening statements and testimony until Monday to allow presentation of the entire case to the jury without a weekend interruption in testimony.

The defense has said in a court document that Young fired the fatal shot, which passed through Helen Moore’s neck and lodged in Ceonei’s head, in self defense as Moore tried to run over him with the car she was driving.