Sister testifies in trial of football game shooting

The trial will resume Monday.

By John W. Goodwin Jr.

YOUNGSTOWN — Testimony in the trial of a man accused of shooting another man to death at a little league football game continued with a good amount of discussion outside the eyes and ears of the jury.

Anthony Caulton, 27, of East Auburndale Avenue, is on trial in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. He is accused of fatally shooting Larry D. Jones, 31, of Ravenwood Avenue, at the former South High Stadium football field during a youth football game in 2006. Caulton’s trial got under way with jury selection and opening statements earlier this week.

He faces life imprisonment if convicted.

Dawn Cantalamessa and Mark Hockensmith, assistant county prosecutors, called Jones’ older sister, LaShawn Jones, to testify, drawing an objection from Atty. Lynn Maro, representing Caulton.

The objection centered on a part of Jones’ testimony where she was set to tell the jury that her brother made a deathbed statement — claiming Caulton was the man who shot him.

Visiting Judge Thomas Curran excused the jurors to discuss the “dying declaration” exception to the hearsay rule with attorneys for the prosecution and defense.

Hearsay, or third-party conversations, are not admissible in court unless under certain strict guidelines such as a dying declaration from a victim.

Hockensmith told the judge that the prosecutor’s office learned of the alleged statements from Larry Jones to his sister in April 2008. Jones died in 2006. He said prosecutors spoke to a coroner’s office investigator, who has since taken ill and cannot testify, and learned of the alleged statement made to LaShawn Jones shortly after the shooting.

Hockensmith argued that prosecutors believe the statement was made and jurors should have the opportunity to weigh the validity of the statement.

Maro said there is nothing to substantiate that a deathbed statement was made to LaShawn Jones.

She argued that LaShawn Jones did not take the statement to police in the days immediately after the shooting or in the initial investigation. She also said the coroner’s investigator did not mention any dying declaration, only that LaShawn Jones named Caulton as a suspected shooter.

Judge Curran said police had done a remarkable job in the immediate investigation of the case and would have wanted to learn of information as pertinent as a deathbed statement identifying the shooter. He questioned why a sibling would not come forward with that information immediately.

The judge ultimately ruled the deathbed statement could not be heard in open court or by the jury.

LaShawn Jones was called to testify, but she was limited to her last interactions with her brother and what she witnessed at the football field on the day of his death.

She told the court she was close to her brother and saw him a short time before the shooting when he told her he was going to visit their mother then going to the football field.

She said she was trying to call her brother that afternoon but received a call from a friend telling her he had been shot.

LaShawn Jones said she spent time with her brother at the field as he lay on the ground waiting for paramedics to arrive. She also told the court she learned of his death after following the ambulance to the hospital and waiting with her mother for doctors to work on her brother.

Testimony in the trial resumes Monday.

jgoodwin@vindy.com