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Suspect in Aug. 11 slayings arrested
The capital-murder suspect will be arraigned Tuesday morning.
YOUNGSTOWN — The North Side man indicted on capital-murder charges in an Aug. 11 double homicide was swiftly arrested in Liberty Township within hours after the indictment was issued.
Lorenza I. Barnette, 27, of Lora Avenue, was arrested without incident at 2:45 p.m. Thursday by the Mahoning Valley Violent Crimes Task Force in the 2900 block of Roosevelt Drive shortly after he left a nearby apartment complex.
Barnette was then interviewed by detectives at the city police station before being lodged in Mahoning County jail to await his 9 a.m. Tuesday arraignment before Judge Lou A. D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
On Thursday, the Mahoning County grand jury indicted Barnette on aggravated-murder charges with death-penalty specifications in the deaths of Jaron L. Roland, 20, of Fairmont Avenue, and Darry B. Woods, 19, of the city’s North Side.
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 in which the deceased were found on West Avenue near the Mahoning River.
After firefighters extinguished a blaze in the car, the deceased were found inside, their limbs bound with duct tape and their heads encased in duct tape and dark, plastic garbage bags.
Dr. Joseph Ohr, Mahoning County deputy coroner, said they died of suffocation and made a preliminary ruling of homicide. No stab or bullet wounds were found on the victims.
Lt. Mark Milstead, a supervisor in the city police detective bureau, was tight-lipped about details of the case, but he did say a store video of Barnette was an important piece of evidence and that “a number of other suspects” are being investigated.
The case is being investigated by detectives John Kelty and Rick Spottleson of the city police department.
During his initial probe Aug. 11, Spottleson “conducted an exhaustive search of area retail stores” based on evidence found at the crime scene and located a retail-store security video of Barnette “which provided significant evidentiary value,” Milstead said.
“What was observed on that store security camera provided a number of leads in the case, which led the detectives to other areas,” Milstead said, declining to be specific.
“We believe that we know the primary motive for this homicide,” he said. However, Milstead would not say what motives there were for the murders other than robbery.
The Mahoning County grand jury secretly indicted Barnette on drug trafficking charges Aug. 20, and that case is pending in common pleas court.