43
Plea deal reduces murder charge to manslaughter
YOUNGSTOWN
A 21-year-old city man will be sentenced Friday for his role in a 2009 killing on the East Side.
Travis Donaldson, 21, of Truesdale Avenue, was set to go on trial Tuesday before Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in the shooting death of Hylen L. Cash, 21, of Sunshine Avenue.
Donaldson, however, entered a plea agreement with prosecutors before a jury could be seated.
Under the agreement, Donaldson pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed weapon, receiving stolen property, illegal possession of a weapon, possession of a firearm, tampering with evidence, a firearm specification and voluntary manslaughter, which was reduced from a murder charge.
Prosecutors have recommended a combined sentence of 20 years in prison on all the charges. Donaldson’s actual sentence, however, will be decided by Judge Evans.
According to police, Donaldson shot and killed Cash in the late morning of May 23 on Ayers Street on the East Side after an argument that witnesses told police was over heroin.
Donaldson was arrested on South Avenue shortly after the shooting. He was a passenger in a car that fled from police. Police said Donaldson’s girlfriend at the time, Tasha Martinez, 25, was the driver.
In a February agreement, Martinez pleaded guilty to a charge of failure to comply with the signal or order of a police officer and obstructing justice.
Judge Evans sentenced Martinez to four years in prison in February.
Donaldson has been incarcerated in the county jail since his May 2009 arrest, but at the time of the shooting both he and Martinez were free on bond for other crimes.
Police charged Donaldson with illegal possession of a weapon, a felony, two weeks before the murder. That charge is included in the list to which Donaldson has pleaded guilty.
Police pulled over Donaldson’s car at the intersection of Market Street and Overhill Drive in Boardman and found a loaded handgun in the vehicle.
Martinez also is listed as an associate in Donaldson’s illegal possession of a weapon arrest report.
Donaldson was given a bond of $20,000 on the weapons charge. Once the bond had been met, he was released until a future court date.
Youngstown police arrested Martinez in the city for possession of heroin, a felony, about two weeks before the May 7 shooting.