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Barnette pleads guilty in Clinkscale murder
YOUNGSTOWN — One of three suspects in a November 2007 homicide has pleaded guilty.
Tora Barnette, 20, of Upland Avenue, entered his plea Wednesday in the Nov. 4, 2007, shooting death of David Clinkscale, 19, of Parkcliff Avenue. The plea hearing was before Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Barnette was originally indicted on aggravated-murder and aggravated-robbery charges naming Clinkscale as the victim, and on a felonious-assault charge naming Raymond Brooks as the victim, with firearm specifications. Brooks was wounded in the shooting.
In a plea agreement with the prosecution, Barnette pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter with a firearm specification, and the prosecution dropped all the other charges against him. Judge Sweeney will sentence Barnette at 11 a.m. Aug. 26.
The prosecution and defense agreed he should serve four years for the voluntary manslaughter, plus three consecutive years for the firearm specification, for a total of seven years in prison. If the judge adopts this sentence, it will be nonappealable.
The available sentencing range based on Barnette’s plea is six to 13 years.
Co-defendants Derrick Veal, 21, of Toledo, formerly of Youngstown, and James E. Steward III, 17, of Thornton Avenue, were indicted on the same charges as Barnette.
Veal is scheduled for a plea hearing at 1 p.m. next Wednesday before Judge Sweeney. Steward, who was bound over from juvenile court in March 2008 for trial as an adult, is set for a jury trial to begin Aug. 17 before Judge Sweeney.
Clinkscale was found fatally shot in the back in the dining room of a downstairs apartment in the 2300 block of Ohio Avenue on the city’s North Side, and detectives said more than one person shot Clinkscale.
The occupant of an upstairs apartment reported hearing multiple gunshots, and police found bullet-impact marks on the walls, doors and ceiling.
As part of his plea agreement, Barnette must testify against his co-defendants if they go to trial.
Robert J. Andrews, assistant county prosecutor, said he made the deal with Barnette because he wasn’t the killer but declined to elaborate on details of the case.
The long delay in disposing of Barnette’s case stemmed in part from the delay in binding over Steward from juvenile court and from plea negotiations, Andrews said.