Driver in homicide sentenced to 14 years

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — Michael Ahladis, who testified in a recent trial that he drove two other men to a Howland apartment for a robbery that turned into a homicide, was sentenced Thursday to 14 years in prison.

Ahladis, 24, of Jefferson Street Southwest, agreed to a prison term of between 13 and 23 years when he pleaded guilty in September to complicity to involuntary manslaughter, complicity to aggravated burglary and tampering with evidence.

That plea agreement was dependent upon his testifying in the November trial of Oryan Miller, 20, one of the two men who committed the burglary.

Ahladis did testify at the trial, saying he, Miller and Delshawn Scrivens, 25, planned the robbery together, buying gloves and ski masks at the Bazetta Township Wal-Mart before going to the apartment about 4 p.m.

Ahladis testified that Murray came home during the robbery, resulting in a shootout that killed Murray and mortally wounded Scrivens.

Scrivens went to a hospital, as did Miller, who suffered a gunshot wound to the buttocks.

A jury found Miller guilty of complicity to murder and complicity to aggravated burglary. Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court sentenced Miller to 18 years to life in prison.

Judge John M. Stuard gave Ahladis slightly more than the minimum promised — 10 years for the complicity to involuntary manslaughter and complicity to aggravated burglary, three years for committing the crimes with a gun and one year for tampering with evidence.

Chuck Morrow, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, said Thursday that Ahladis gave investigators several versions of what happened Dec. 23, 2008, the night Cameron Murray, 21, was killed inside his Sandpiper Trail apartment.

But Ahladis eventually told the truth and passed a polygraph test, Morrow said.

Ahladis gave a short apology for his role in the crime; members of Murray’s family did not address the court during the hearing.