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Man to face a retrial in case
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mahoning County prosecutor’s office will retry the case of Duniek Christian, who was accused of being the driver in the July 1, 2005, rolling gunbattle with police on the city’s East Side, now that the Ohio Supreme Court has refused to review his appeal.
Dawn Cantalamessa, assistant county prosecutor, said the matter will be retried because the prosecution believes it has a strong case, with seven police officers ready to testify against Christian.
In dismissing the appeal Wednesday, the state’s top court left intact last September’s decision by the 7th District Court of Appeals.
In that decision, the three appellate judges unanimously ruled that the trial judge erred in freeing Christian from jail and in declaring that he could not be retried after a jury deadlocked in his case.
The trial judge, James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, declared a mistrial due to a hung jury in August 2008.
The jury acquitted Christian, 24, of North Garland Avenue, of nine counts of felonious assault, but jurors said they were “unable to decide” whether Christian was guilty of complicity to felonious assault in seven of those counts.
“Complicity is presumed in every indictment, and the instruction [to the jury] on such offense essentially activates the charge, allowing retrial on the same indictment in the case of a hung jury on that complicity charge,” Judge Joseph J. Vukovich wrote in the September decision.
Co-defendants Jumal Edwards, 26, of Woodcrest Avenue, and Craig Franklin Jr., 21, of Glenwood Avenue, who police said fired at them from the stolen car Christian reportedly drove, were convicted and sentenced to 97 and 105 years in prison, respectively.