Jury selection begins in Dixon murder trial

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Jury selection began Monday afternoon and will resume at 9 a.m. today in the trial of Melvin T. Dixon Jr., the man charged with fatally shooting an Auto Zone clerk during a robbery 41/2 years ago on the city’s East Side.

Dixon, 27, of Devon Avenue, is charged with aggravated murder and aggravated robbery with a gun specification in the May 2, 2006, death of Edward Agee, 52, of Star Street.

Judge Lou A. D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, who is presiding over the trial, has granted a prosecution motion for the jurors to view the Auto Zone store at 1960 McCartney Road, where Agee was fatally shot, once jury selection is completed.

One co-defendant, Jamaad Jackson, 21, of Wychwood Lane, who also was initially charged with aggravated murder and aggravated robbery with a gun specification, has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and aggravated robbery with a gun specification.

Another co-defendant, Reginald Everson, 24, of Chalmers Avenue, has pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery. Prosecutors say Everson did not have a gun on him.

Jackson and Everson await sentencing.

Martin P. Desmond, an assistant county prosecutor, is handling the state’s case. Dixon’s lawyers are James S. Gentile and Ross T. Smith.