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Youngstown man indicted in killing of two in August
YOUNGSTOWN — A North Side man is indicted on aggravated- murder charges with death penalty specifications in the deaths of two young men.
The victims were found in a burning rental car by a fisherman Aug. 11 on West Avenue, near the Mahoning River.
Lorenza I. Barnette, 27, of Lora Avenue, was indicted Thursday by the Mahoning County grand jury in the deaths of Jaron L. Roland, 20, of Fairmont Avenue, and Darry B. Woods, 19, of the city’s North Side. The victims were first cousins.
The death-penalty specifications say Barnette killed two or more people and committed the murders while committing aggravated robbery, kidnapping and arson.
Barnette is also charged with two counts each of kidnapping and aggravated robbery, which name the two dead men as victims, and with arson in the torching of the rental car.
After 15 minutes at the scene, the fisherman noticed flames coming from the 2007 Dodge Caliber’s driver’s side door and looked inside, but he couldn’t see anything because of the smoke.
The victims were found after firefighters arrived at 6:52 p.m. and extinguished the blaze. The car had been rented from the Enterprise Rental Agency on Rayen Avenue.
City Prosecutor Jay Macejko said late Thursday that he is sure Roland and Woods were homicide victims. They died by asphyxiation because they had duct tape over their mouths and plastic bags over their heads, he said. Roland and Woods’ limbs were bound with duct tape.
Macejko declined to comment on whether he expects other suspects will be indicted in this case. Robbery wasn’t the only motive, he said, but he declined to elaborate.
“My suspicion is that these two men died of asphyxiation before they could be killed by some other means,” Macejko said, adding that he believes the fire burned only a few minutes before it was discovered.
Dr. Joseph Ohr, forensic pathologist and deputy Mahoning County coroner, said the cause of death is asphyxiation and his preliminary ruling is homicide. Lab test results are pending.
Dark garbage bags completely covered the victims’ heads, said Dr. Ohr, who went to the crime scene and performed the autopsies. “They had duct tape and plastic encasing their heads,” he said. No blood was found at the scene, he said.
There was no evidence of any weapon having been used to kill the victims, Dr. Ohr said. No stab or bullet wounds were found on the victims, he said. The men suffered burns, but the burns did not cause their deaths, he added.
The Mahoning County grand jury secretly indicted Barnette on drug trafficking charges on Aug. 20, and that case is pending in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.