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City man convicted in shooting death
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Kevin L. West
YOUNGSTOWN
Kevin L. West could spend the rest of his life in prison after he is sentenced about 45 days from now after completion of a presentence investigation.
Judge Maureen A. Sweeney could sentence him to 23, 28 or 33 years to life in prison or life in prison without parole.
A six-man, six-woman jury in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court deliberated 41/2 hours at the end of a weeklong trial before convicting West of aggravated murder with a mandatory consecutive three-year gun specification.
Conviction on the aggravated-murder charge means that West, 23, of Clearmount Drive, “purposely, and with prior calculations and design,” killed Delbert L. Jones.
The jurors rendered their verdict at 6 p.m. Monday with about 25 well-behaved spectators from both the West and Jones families in attendance.
Jones, 22, of 814 W. Indianola Ave., was found face down in a field between his home and 808 W. Indianola on Aug. 16, 2008, with several gunshot wounds to his back and pronounced dead at the scene. West was arrested in Boardman four days later.
Jones had just been released July 23, 2008, from the Belmont Correctional Institution after serving time for carrying a concealed weapon.
Jones was near his home, talking to his friends, who were sitting in a car, when West drove by, Robert J. Andrews, an assistant county prosecutor, told the jury in his opening statement.
West returned soon thereafter on foot, firing a shot at Jones, chasing Jones and firing additional shots, Andrews told the jury.
After Jones collapsed, West stood over him and fired two more shots into him, Andrews said, adding that one of the bullet slugs recovered from Jones had the initials “DJ” carved into it.
West’s lawyer, Jeffrey A. Kurz, told the jury West was on trial, not because of anything he had done, but because of questionable witnesses with credibility issues and a rush to judgment by police.
In August, Judge Sweeney declared a mistrial in the West case because so many potential jurors from a panel of 25 had to be excused for cause that a jury of 12 couldn’t be seated.
Andrews said he wasn’t sure what sentence he’d recommend for West.
Kurz and West’s other lawyer, Ronald D. Yarwood, declined to comment after the verdict.