Man sought in Warren killings

Three of Warren’s eight homicides this year occurred within the past week.

By Ed Runyan

WARREN — Police believe three people who knew each other stood in the parking lot of the Colt Court apartment complex in Southwest Warren at around 3:12 a.m. Sunday, and one of them — Michael L. McDonald, 25, of Lener Avenue Southwest — was armed with a rifle.

They believe McDonald opened fire, killing Mocha Jones, 25, of 1704 Colt Court Southwest and Donte Broadus, 31, of Clearwater Street Northwest and leaving three children without a mother.

Detectives say at least a couple of Jones’ children were at Jones’ apartment, which was just a short distance from where her body was found. Colt Court is run by the Trumbull Metropolitan Housing Authority, which runs government-subsidized apartments.

Police officers and agents with the U.S. Marshal’s Service have been looking for McDonald hadn’t found him as of Monday afternoon.

Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Wayne Mackey at the Warren Police Department at (330) 841-2684.

The two homicides have raised Warren’s death toll for the year to eight — two more than were recorded in all of 2008. Another double homicide occurred April 13 on Wick Street Southeast, claiming the life of 11-year-old Lloyd McCoy Jr. and 26-year-old Marvin Chaney.

A 39-year-old Warren man was killed in the parking lot of USA Gas Mart on North Park Avenue Northeast last Tuesday.

McDonald was sentenced in February in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to two years probation on an attempted cocaine possession charge.

He was sentenced to nine months in prison in 2006 for improperly handling a firearm in a motor vehicle and 18 months in prison in 2003 for receiving stolen property and using a firearm in commission of his crime.

runyan@vindy.com