Appellate court upholds conviction

The evidence against the killer was ‘sufficient and persuasive,’ judges rule.

staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — A three-judge panel of the 7th District Court of Appeals has upheld a man’s conviction for the July 22, 1992, murder of his estranged wife.

In a ruling earlier this week on the long-delayed appeal, the panel said the evidence presented against Robert E. Wilson in his jury trial for the murder of Tonya Wilson was “sufficient and persuasive.”

Wilson’s lawyer, Jana L. DeLoach of Akron, who said Wilson is innocent, argued unsuccessfully that another man fired the fatal shot and that Wilson’s conviction was against the weight of the evidence.

But the appellate court noted that a state firearms expert testified the handgun carried by the other man could not have fired the fatal shot.

On Nov. 5, 1993, Judge Charles J. Bannon of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, who is now retired, sentenced Wilson, then 25, to 24 years to life in prison for the murder with a gun specification, unlawful possession of a dangerous ordnance, illegal gun possession and drug abuse.

Tonya Wilson died of a bullet wound to the back of her neck when she was shot in her car on Stansbury Drive on the city’s North Side.

Saying the merits of Robert Wilson’s prior appeal and request for a new trial were never considered, the court took the unusual step of accepting the long-delayed appeal.

Normally, appeals must be filed with the court within 30 days after sentencing.