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Jurors in capital murder trial prepared for closing arguments
YOUNGSTOWN — Judge Maureen A. Sweeney instructed jurors in Curtis Young’s capital murder trial to bring extra clothing when they arrive at the courthouse at 9 a.m. today for the prosecuting and defense lawyers’ closing arguments.
As soon as the lawyers finish their arguments, the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge will instruct them at length on their complex verdict options in this case, and they’ll begin their deliberations.
“When you do begin your deliberations sometime tomorrow, it may become necessary for you to be sequestered. What that means is you will not be permitted to go home tomorrow night. Therefore, it is important that you bring two changes of clothing with you,” the judge told the jurors Wednesday afternoon.
If there are any overnight breaks in their deliberations, the jurors will be sequestered in hotel rooms. Those rooms will be without radio, TV or Internet access, and the jurors will be guarded by deputy sheriffs at the hotel.
Young, 26, of North Center Street, is charged with aggravated murder with firearm and death-penalty specifications.
The charges stem from a July 31, 2007, shooting, which killed his former girlfriend, Helen Moore, 29, of Cassius Street; her nearly full-term unborn child; and her 8-year-old son, Ceonei, the front-seat passenger in the car she was driving.
The prosecution says Young killed purposely and with prior calculation and design, but the defense says Young fired in self-defense as Moore tried to run over him with her car.
The prosecution rested its case Tuesday afternoon after two days of testimony. The defense put three people, including Young, on the witness stand Wednesday morning and rested its case.
The judge will instruct the jury of nine women and three men on the necessary findings to convict on the aggravated-murder charges and the death specifications linked to them. The death specifications say Young purposely killed two or more people and purposely killed two victims under age 13.
Conviction of a firearm specification would add three consecutive years to any prison sentence.
If the jurors convict Young of any of the death-penalty specifications, they’ll have to return at a later date for a penalty-determination phase in which they’ll hear testimony on what the penalty should be, and they’ll recommend a death sentence or one of several life-prison sentence options.
If they don’t find Young guilty of aggravated murder, jurors will have the options of finding him guilty of murder or voluntary manslaughter, or they can find that he acted in self-defense, which would mean an acquittal.
Testifying in his own defense, Young said he fired a single shot outside his residence because he feared Moore was going to run over him with her car. “She hit the gas and tried to come after me to try to run me over,” he said under questioning from defense lawyer Douglas B. Taylor.
After he fired, “The car ran up on the curb and tipped over,” Young testified. “I stood in the street for a minute because I was in shock.”
Under cross-examination by Martin P. Desmond, assistant county prosecutor, Young acknowledged that he could have remained inside his residence and called 911 while he knew Moore was outside in her car, but he did not do so.
He also acknowledged that he didn’t call 911 or stay to help Moore and her children in her car after her car left the road, and that he didn’t turn himself in to the authorities until two days later on the county courthouse steps.
Before Young took the witness stand, Marvin Valree testified that he saw Young maneuver his car out of a McGuffey Road party shop parking lot where Helen Moore, and her sister, Mary, blocked him in between their cars, and that the women left behind him during the rolling argument through East Side streets that preceded the shooting.
When Desmond asked him why he didn’t report his observations to police after the shooting, Valree said he assumed others had turned Young in to authorities. Valree said he didn’t see the shooting.
The judge closed the courtroom to the public during the testimony of the defense’s first witness and told the media not to use her name because the witness feared retribution.
The judge opted to close the courtroom instead of proceeding with earlier plans to have the woman testify in open court, hidden from public view by a partition.
The woman said she witnessed a loud argument between a man in his car and a woman who had gotten out of her car at McGuffey Mall on Garland Avenue. The woman unsuccessfully tried to stop the man from leaving, the witness said.
“What kind of upset me was when I saw the little heads of children in the car,” driven by the woman, she said. “I said a silent prayer and walked away because I had a bad feeling,” she testified.
milliken@vindy.com