Jurors deliberate Young’s fate in death of three

YOUNGSTOWN — A nine-woman, three-man jury has begun deliberating the fate of Curtis Young, who is charging with killing Helen Moore, her nearly full-term fetus, and her 8-year-old son, Ceonei, on July 31, 2007.

Deliberations began at 1:15 p.m. today after Judge Maureen A. Sweeney, of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, gave the jurors an hour of instructions concerning verdict options of aggravated murder, murder, or voluntary manslaughter convictions, and acquittal based on self-defense.

The fatal shooting was a premeditated murder, a prosecutor said in his closing argument this morning.

“He showed no evidence of self defense. His story is a complete lie,’’ Martin P. Desmond, assistant county prosecutor, said of Young. “He had a plan and carried it through.”

Young went to Moore’s Cassius Street home earlier on the day of the shooting and threatened to kill her and her children, Mary Moore, the victim’s sister told police, Desmond reminded the jury.

Mary Moore and her son, Garrison, testified they heard Young tell someone he was talking to on his cellular phone to get his gun, while cars driven by Helen and Mary Moore and Young were at McGuffey Mall during the rolling argument that preceded the shooting, Desmond recalled for the jury.

However, Young’s lawyer, Thomas E. Zena, told the jurors that records of the timing and origin and destination of cellular phone calls, which were presented by the prosecution, do not corroborate the content of the calls.

Zena referred to Young’s statement that he fired one shot in self defense as Helen Moore, 29, pushed the accelerator and tried to run him over with her car in front of Young’s Center Street residence.

“However fast that car was going, it was enough to turn it over,” Zena said of Helen Moore’s car, which left the road and overturned onto its passenger side immediately after she was shot.

“If that car was going slowly — you were there — that car could have never climbed that curb,’’ Zena said, referring to the juror’s visit to the shooting scene.

Young, 26, was indicted on aggravated murder charges with firearm and death penalty specifications.

If the jurors don’t reach a verdict today and must suspend deliberations for the night, they must be sequestered overnight in a hotel under sheriff’s deputy guard, with no radio, TV or Internet access in their rooms.