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Two homicide cases go to court
YOUNGSTOWN
A 15-year-old boy and a 55-year-old man were arraigned in separate courts Friday on charges associated with the city’s two most- recent homicides.
The 15-year-old accused of killing 17-year-old Braylen Collins appeared in the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center courtroom at 10 a.m. wearing the dark-colored jumpsuit issued to juvenile offenders and with chains on his hands and feet.
Shonqualin Hendrix of Edwards Street appeared meek and soft-spoken before Magistrate Karen Romano-Melone with his mother, sister and an infant child in the audience on his behalf.
Romano-Melone explained the murder charge to Hendrix and the fact that he also is being charged with using a firearm to commit the crime. She said he is facing a minimum of three years or a maximum detention until his 21st birthday in a state juvenile facility. He also is facing up to three years for the gun specification.
The magistrate also explained that Hendrix could be bound over to common pleas court, where he could face charges as an adult.
The court will appoint an attorney to represent Hendrix, but his mother said she would like to try to hire someone to take the case. She asked the court how her son could be arrested for a crime that she already heard someone else had been arrested for committing, but the court told her it would be best to address that with her attorney.
Hendrix will remain in juvenile detention while his case progresses. No new court date has been set.
Police and the Mahoning Valley Violent Crimes Task Force arrested Hendrix without incident about 1:30 p.m. Thursday at a house on Edwards Street. Collins, of West Glenaven Avenue, was shot about 2 p.m. July 29 at Evergreen Avenue and Summer Street on the South Side and died shortly thereafter at St. Elizabeth Health Center.
City police arrested Delord Green, 18, of Summer Street, at the scene on charges of tampering with evidence and discharging a firearm within city limits. Green is due in Youngstown Municipal Court for a preliminary hearing Monday.
Meanwhile, in Youngstown Municipal Court, Daniel Wellington, 55, of Knapp Avenue, was arraigned before Judge Robert Milich on a charge of voluntary manslaughter in connection with the death of his 44-year-old wife, Doris Wellington.
Wellington, represented by Atty. James Gentile, pleaded not guilty to the felony charge and was ordered placed in Mahoning County jail on a $25,000 bond. Prosecutors said Wellington has no prior criminal record.
Police were called to the Wellingtons’ Knapp Avenue home on the East Side just after 1 a.m. Friday for a report of a female not breathing. When officers arrived at the home, Wellington was attempting cardiopulmonary resuscitation on his wife.
Wellington, according to police reports, told officers he and his wife got into an argument, and she jumped on him. He said he grabbed her around the neck to get her off of him and she hit her head as they rolled off the bed.
Wellington, however, previously told officers during an earlier phone call that he and his wife argued and he choked her. A ruling from the Mahoning County Coroner’s office late Friday afternoon said Doris Wellington was killed by manual strangulation. Her death was ruled a homicide.
Paramedics arrived but were unsuccessful in their efforts to revive Mrs. Wellington.