Feb. 4 execution date set for Valley man in ’94 slayings

staff report

COLUMBUS — The Ohio Supreme Court has set the execution date for a Mahoning County man convicted in a 1994 murder of a store owner and employee.

Mark Brown, 36, has been on death row since 1996 after being convicted of murdering Isam Salman and Haydar Al Turk at the Midway Market in Youngstown.

Al Turk was the store owner, and Salman was an employee, and both were shot multiple times. Brown confessed killing Al Turk but said he did not remember shooting Salman, according to documents.

Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains filed a motion in May asking the state’s high court to set an execution date, noting that Brown had exhausted all state and federal legal remedies.

The high court on Wednesday set Brown’s execution date for Feb. 4, to be carried out at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. Brown is incarcerated at the Ohio State Penitentiary near Youngstown.

Justices also set two other execution dates Wednesday. Lawrence Reynolds, convicted in a 1994 murder in Akron, will face execution Oct. 8. Vernon Smith, convicted in a Lucas County murder in 1993, will face execution Jan. 7.