Both sides say security tapes will be key evidence at trial

By Peter H. Milliken

The fatal shooting occurred outside a South Side pizza shop.

YOUNGSTOWN — Pizzeria security videotapes will be key items of evidence, whose interpretation will be in dispute, as suggested by opening statements in the trial of Dion D. Weatherspoon, who is charged in the July 8, 2007, shooting death of William Burr.

Weatherspoon, 20, of Hilton Avenue, is on trial, charged with aggravated murder with a firearm specification. A seven-woman, five-man jury is hearing the case, with Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court presiding.

In his opening statement Tuesday, Robert J. Andrews, assistant county prosecutor, said Burr drove into a parking lot near Angelo’s Pizza Shop, 3215 South Ave., where he had gone to meet someone, and sat in his car with the car stereo playing loudly.

Weatherspoon and Johnathan A. Dent, 17, of Lucius Avenue, were standing in the parking lot when Burr arrived, Andrews said.

Dent, who is charged with complicity to murder in Burr’s death, was bound over from juvenile court for trial as an adult and awaits a separate jury trial March 16 before Judge Sweeney.

Weatherspoon walked by Burr, 27, of East Midlothian Boulevard, Struthers, and made an unknown remark to him through the open driver’s-door window, Andrews said.

Weatherspoon then entered the pizza shop, where a clerk told him the store was closed; he then emerged from the shop, walked back to Burr’s red Chevrolet Cavalier, fired six shots and ran south on South Avenue, Andrews told the jury.

Burr crawled out of the passenger side of his car, stumbled down an incline and collapsed behind the pizza shop, Andrews said. An ambulance took him to St. Elizabeth Health Center, where he was pronounced dead, Andrews said.

The store video shows Weatherspoon entering and leaving the pizzeria, the jerking of his arm as the shots were fired, and Weatherspoon running from the scene, Andrews said.

Weatherspoon wore a bright red basketball shirt with No. 5 on the front, which police found at his girlfriend’s residence, together with the shorts and shoes he was wearing at the time of the shooting, Andrews said.

Although they found no gun in Weatherspoon’s residence, police found magazines matching the .22-caliber and .25-caliber shell casings found at the shooting scene, Andrews said.

Weatherspoon’s lawyer, Thomas E. Zena, acknowledged his client entered the shop, which he frequented and where he was known by his first name, asked for pizza, and was told the shop was closed.

However, he said his client approached the Cavalier before and after he entered the pizzeria because he was trying to make a drug sale to Burr, who declined to buy from him on his first attempt. Another person appeared on the video and fired shots into the car, Zena said.

“View the evidence carefully. ... Look into the movements that occur prior to the shooting, which you will hear on the video,” Zena urged the jurors.

“Make your observations. Listen to the evidence, and I believe you will find that you are not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Dion Weatherspooon is guilty of aggravated murder,” Zena said.

Andrews told the jurors he wasn’t sure if they’d be told during the trial why the shooting occurred. “It doesn’t matter why he did it. What matters is that he did it,” the prosecutor said.

Shortly after Burr was killed, police said Burr’s being a witness to his brother’s homicide was being considered as a motive in Burr’s death.

Burr’s brother, Anthony Perez, 31, of Plazaview Court, was shot to death Dec. 30, 2006, on Clearmount Drive, while he and Burr (sometimes known as Michael Perez) were detailing a car. Police said several men approached and opened fire over an argument concerning the alleged theft of a car. None of the bullets fired in the December shooting hit Burr.

Brothers Darrin Davis, 19, and Reshaud Biggs, 22, both of East Florida Avenue, are charged in the slaying of Anthony Perez and await a Jan. 26 jury trial before Judge James C. Evans.