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Police target more in courthouse melee
Charges mount in court-hall brawl
By Ashley Luthern
YOUNGSTOWN
Police continue to charge people in a melee after the arraignment of a murder suspect, whose family has since spoken out against the violence.
Wade Shaw, 35, of Hudson Avenue, was arraigned Friday morning in Youngstown Municipal Court. He pleaded not guilty to charges of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and failure to disperse and is being held in lieu of $1,500 bail for each charge in the Mahoning County jail.
Shaw and Ovidio Santiago, 40, were arrested after the video arraignment of Melvin S. Shaw II, 18, who is charged with the June 19 murder of Tracee Banks, 17, and attempted murder of Jamel Turner, 18, on the city’s West Side.
Santiago, the stepfather of Banks, was charged with disorderly conduct, and his pretrial hearing is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. July 28. He was not taken to jail.
Police also issued an arrest warrant for Clyde Hudson, Melvin Shaw’s brother, Friday morning for failure to disperse and disorderly conduct during the city hall fight.
Lisa Robinson, the mother of Melvin Shaw and Hudson, told police she and her family have been threatened and called for an end to the violence Friday afternoon at her Idlewood Avenue home.
“It’s getting hot and deep, and this violence needs to stop,” she said. “... I’m trying to get peace. All this violence keeps escalating.”
Other family members described Melvin as gentle person who enjoyed fixing cars.
“Melvin just loved people. I’ve never seen him be violent in my life,” said Sim Shaw, Melvin’s grandfather. “We don’t need violence. We don’t want to lose anyone else.”
Robinson emphasized Melvin’s cooperation with the murder investigation — which was highlighted by his attorney Thomas E. Zena to get a slightly reduced bond of $1.25 million.
Zena also represented Sim Shaw’s son, Wade, in court Friday morning and asked Judge Robert A. Douglas Jr. to consider that Wade is not involved in any pending investigations.
“In fairness, when you review the upstairs video ... Wade was trying to break up a fight,” Zena said, adding that police are still looking for at least two other people from the melee.
Zena defended Wade in 2007, when Wade pleaded guilty and was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the December 2002 beating death of Archie Stanford, 44, of Parkwood Avenue.
Wade cooperated with authorities and reached a plea agreement in the Stanford case and for a felonious assault charge in the October 2003 shooting of Rasheid Brown.
Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court sentenced Wade to five years in prison, and he received credit for time served in the Mahoning County Justice Center, where he had been held since Dec. 12, 2003.
The family and friends of Melvin and Banks could meet again at Melvin’s preliminary trial at 10 a.m. July 23. Robinson wasn’t at Wednesday’s arraignment, but said she will be there Friday.
“These are real lives,” she said. “... I’m hurting for [Tracee Banks’] parents and Melvin.”