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Glenn convicted of drive-by murder of teenage girl
The defendant admitted firing from the car while he was intoxicated.
YOUNGSTOWN — The mother of a 17-year-old girl who was killed in a drive-by shooting said the man convicted of the murder should serve life in prison without parole.
“I’ve got to do a life term. Why shouldn’t he have to do one?” asked Rachel Wilkins, of Youngstown, mother of Maressia Patterson, who was killed May 26, 2007, on the city’s North Side.
“I feel relieved. It’s finally over. It’s not going to bring back my daughter. Two families lost today. When you play with guns, this is what comes out of it,” she added.
“This is the best birthday present Maressia could have gotten,” Zera Wilkins, a cousin residing in Columbus, said of the guilty verdict. Feb. 14 would have been Patterson’s 19th birthday.
They made their remarks after a jury of eight women and four men found Deon Glenn guilty of the murder of Patterson.
However, the jurors acquitted Glenn, 20, of Glenwood Avenue, of aggravated murder in her death. The murder charge was a lesser included offense.
In the verdict it rendered Friday afternoon after deliberating 41‚Ñ2 hours, the jury also convicted Glenn of five counts of attempted murder, one for each of the five other people he shot at.
Glenn, who was also convicted of a firearm specification, faces a minimum of 20 years to life in prison when he is sentenced at 10 a.m. next Friday.
Glenn faces 15 years to life in prison for the murder, plus a mandatory, consecutive five-year sentence for the gun specification, for a minimum of 20 years to life. The specification in this case is that a gun was used in the crime and that it was fired from a vehicle.
He also faces three to 10 years on each attempted murder count. The judge has considerable sentencing latitude. Those sentences could be concurrent or consecutive. They could also be concurrent or consecutive to the time for the murder. If all sentences were stacked consecutively, Glenn would face 70 years to life in prison.
Patterson, 17, of Upland Avenue, was fatally shot in the back; and Akeem Minor, of Lauderdale Avenue, also 17, was wounded by the gunfire.
The verdict was rendered at the end of a weeklong trial before Judge Lou A. D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Patterson and Minor had left a party on Lora Avenue and were walking on Ford Avenue between Norwood and Crandall avenues. Witnesses told police six or seven shots were fired from a car at 12:30 a.m.
Witnesses told police the shooting resulted from an online feud between groups at Chaney High School and the former Rayen School.
Testifying in his own defense, Glenn admitted firing the gun into the air from the car while he was intoxicated, but he denied trying to hurt or kill anyone.
Robert Jackson, 20, of East Evergreen Avenue, the driver of the car, testified Glenn, who was his front-seat passenger, fired from the car.
Jackson originally faced the same charges as Glenn, but he pleaded guilty only to obstructing justice by removing shell casings from the car after the shooting, and he agreed to testify against Glenn.
In the plea agreement with Jackson, the prosecutor substituted the obstructing justice charge for the aggravated murder charge and dropped the five attempted murder counts and the gun specification. Jackson still awaits sentencing.
There is no evidence that Jackson knew before the shooting that Glenn was armed or intended to shoot anyone, said Martin P. Desmond, assistant county prosecutor, explaining why he made the plea deal.
Glenn’s sister, Sparkle Johnson of Youngstown, said after the verdict: “The whole tragedy is very upsetting. I feel for the family for losing a daughter. We’re also losing a family member, and I’m losing a brother [to a long prison term] even though he’s still alive. ...It’s a sad situation for everyone.”
“Weapons and drunkenness equals tragedy,” Glenn’s lawyer, David L. Engler, said.