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Convicted murderer requests new trial
The Youngstown man has been imprisoned for almost 17 years.
YOUNGSTOWN — A man who says he was wrongly convicted of fatally shooting his wife almost 17 years ago seeks a new trial.
A request for a new trial was filed in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on behalf of Robert E. Wilson, who was sentenced in 1993 to 24 years to life in prison.
Judge Charles J. Bannon, who is now retired, sentenced Wilson, then 25, for the murder of his estranged wife, Tonya, with a firearm specification, unlawful possession of a dangerous ordnance, illegal gun possession and drug abuse.
Wilson, of Browning Avenue, who is in the Trumbull Correctional Institution, pleaded guilty to illegal gun possession and to the drug charge, but a jury convicted him of the other charges.
“Mr. Wilson has been incarcerated for almost 17 years. It is time for Mr. Wilson to receive his justice. It is time for Mr. Wilson’s conviction to be overturned and for him to be released. Mr. Wilson was innocent in 1992, and he is innocent today,” wrote Atty. Jana L. DeLoach of Akron in her request for a new trial.
DeLoach, who filed the request Friday, appealed Wilson’s conviction last August to the 7th District Court of Appeals, which accepted the delayed appeal on the grounds that the merits of his prior appeal and request for a new trial were never considered.
The appeal filed last year is still pending.
Tonya Wilson, 25, died of a bullet wound to the back of her neck about 2 a.m. July 22, 1992, while she was in her car.
At Wilson’s sentencing, Prosecutor Kenneth Bailey said Wilson killed his estranged wife after ramming her car while under a restraining order to stay away from her.
In the confrontation, the Wilsons were driving nose-to-nose in separate cars going downhill on Stansbury Drive, with Wilson going forward and his wife backing up as shots were fired, according to a court document filed by DeLoach.
In Friday’s filing, DeLoach argues that ballistics evidence from the trial shows the fatal bullet was fired from behind the victim, not in front of her.
During the trial, another man, who has since died, said he grabbed his gun in self defense and fired two shots in the air after seeing a flash from a gun in Robert Wilson’s hand, which was pointing in his direction.
At the trial, another eyewitness testified she saw gunshots coming from behind the victim’s car.
milliken@vindy.com