Brown to know by noon if he is to die

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Mark Aaron Brown

By John W. Goodwin Jr.

Two witnesses said they lied on the stand in 1994.

YOUNGSTOWN — Mark Aaron Brown will know by the end of today whether he will be given a new trial date or remain on schedule to be executed next month.

Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court heard two days of testimony in support of Brown’s request for a new trial.

Members of Brown’s defense team, headed by Rachel Troutman and Pamela Prude-Smithers of the Ohio Public Defender Office, rested its case early Tuesday after a failed attempt to call a third witness to the stand in support of Brown’s attempt at a new trial.

Judge Sweeney said she would rule on the request for a new trial by noon today.

Brown is scheduled to die Feb. 4 for killing Isam Salman and Hayder Al-Turk in a North Side convenience store in January 1994. Brown, 21 at the time of the murders, was high on drugs when he entered the Midway Market on Elm Street and shot Salman, the store’s owner, and Al-Turk, a clerk working in the store.

Brown’s request for a new trial is based on testimony by Myzelle Arrington and Marcus Clark, two men who testified as juveniles at Brown’s original trial in 1994.

Both men told the court they lied on the stand in 1994 because they wanted to gain favor with police and prosecutors, who Arrington and Clark contend said they could be charged in connection with the case.

Arrington said he wrote a letter to then-Prosecutor James A. Philomena seeking leniency in exchange for his testimony. Prude-Smithers noted that Arrington received only 45 days in jail for an incident where he “shot up” his girlfriend’s house. Charges of felonious assault were reduced to misdemeanors in that case.

Arrington ultimately admitted he received no direct help in his criminal cases in 1994 as a result of his testimony.

Clark told the court police questioned him at the time without a parent or attorney present, and he was scared, thinking he, too, might be charged in the shooting.

Clark said Brown shot only one of the men in the store. He said another man, known only as “Boonie,” pulled out a gun and shot the other man while the victim stood in an aisle inside the store.

The defense wanted to call Jerry Granberry to the stand. Granberry was subpoenaed to testify in Brown’s original trial but was not called to the stand by prosecutors.

Prude-Smithers said Granberry’s testimony would be essential to Brown’s request for a new trial because it backs up the new testimony offered by Arrington and Clark.

She said Granberry was prepared to testify he saw two men run out of the store after the gunshots were heard inside the store. She said Granberry also was prepared to testify that Clark was inside the store at the time of the shooting, and Arrington was not standing in front of the store during the shooting as stated in court during the original trial.

Judge Sweeney refused to hear testimony from Granberry but did permit defense attorneys to read what would have been Granberry’s testimony into the official record.

Troutman told the court a new trial should be granted based on the testimony of the two men. She said the hearing has been the first time both testified in court and expected nothing in return.

Prosecutors said testimony offered by Clark and Arrington is not newly discovered information, but more of a pack of inconsistencies by both men.

They said testimony from Clark claiming there were two shooters with two separate guns is unbelievable because all evidence points to the use of one gun — the gun found in the possession of Brown at the time of his arrest.

jgoodwin@vindy.com