Defendant’s ‘wrestling’ at crime site shows innocence, his attorney says

Photo by: Ed Runyan

Photo

ON TRIAL: Oryan Miller, 20, of Hall Street Northwest, listens to testimony with his attorney, Sarah Kovoor, in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court. Miller is on trial in the 2008 death of Cameron Murray, 21, in Murray’s Howland apartment. In the background is Judge Andrew Logan, presiding over the trial.

By Ed Runyan

WARREN — An affidavit filed by the Howland Police Department in the case against Oryan Miller contained a curious fact: A witness reported seeing two men in ski masks “wrestling” on the back porch of Cameron Murray’s apartment the afternoon Murray was found shot to death.

Sarah Kovoor, who is representing Miller against complicity-to-murder and other charges in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, had an explanation for that Thursday while delivering her opening statement in Miller’s trial: Miller was there against his will or didn’t know when he got there what was about to happen.

“If [Miller] was going there willingly, why was he wrestling with his co-conspirator?” Kovoor asked the jury.

By the way he was dressed, the affidavit suggested that one of the two men on the back porch was Delshawn Scrivens, 25, of Wood Street Southwest, who later died from gunshot wounds police think he received while committing the murder-burglary.

Kovoor said the witness’s description of the other man suggests it was Miller, 20, of Hall Street Northwest.

Kovoor said the wrestling match and other facts — along with the state’s key witness’s changing his story several times while being interviewed by police — should make the jury question whether her client committed any crimes at Murray’s Sandpiper Trail apartment Dec. 23.

Chuck Morrow, assistant county prosecutor, meanwhile, told the jury of four men and eight women that a friend of Murray’s discovered Murray’s body about 4 p.m. in the open doorway of Murray’s apartment, which is off East Market Street a short distance west of Howland High School.

Police found $22,000 in cash in the apartment, along with bags of marijuana, causing detectives to conclude that Murray was a drug dealer, Morrow said.

Additionally, Michael Ahladis, 24, of Jefferson Street Southwest, told investigators that he and Scrivens hatched a plan to rob Murray and picked up Miller before stopping at the Bazetta Wal-Mart to buy ski masks and gloves, Morrow said.

Ahladis will testify that he dropped off Miller and Scrivens at Murray’s apartment and came back when Scrivens called him saying he and Miller had been shot, Morrow said. Scrivens and Miller were treated at local hospitals. Scrivens died from his wounds.

Testimony from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation will show that Miller’s blood was found in the apartment and inside the truck Ahladis drove that afternoon, Morrow said.

If convicted of complicity to murder and complicity to aggravated burglary and complicity to aggravated robbery, Miller could be sentenced to more than 15 years to life in prison.

Ahladis has pleaded guilty to reduced charges of involuntary manslaughter, complicity to aggravated burglary and tampering with evidence and will be sentenced after the trial is over.

runyan@vindy.com