7th District upholds conviction in pee-wee game murder

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The 7th District Court of Appeals has upheld the murder conviction of Anthony Caulton in the Aug. 19, 2006, shooting death of Larry D. Jones during a pee-wee football game attended by some 500 people at the former South High School stadium.

In a ruling issued Friday, a three-judge panel unanimously upheld Caulton’s conviction for murder with a firearm specification in the slaying of Jones, 31, of Ravenwood Avenue, saying: “The weight of the evidence supports the conviction.”

After a jury convicted Caulton in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, visiting Judge Thomas P. Curran sentenced Caulton, 30, of East Auburndale Avenue, to 18 years to life in prison.

The appeals judges rejected Caulton’s claim that Judge Curran erred by not instructing the jury concerning the lesser offense of voluntary manslaughter.

Judge Curran “properly and reasonably declined to instruct the jury” concerning the manslaughter charge because the trial produced insufficient evidence of provocation from the victim to support such an instruction, the panel ruled.

“Moreover, the fact that Caulton shot Jones several times, walked away, and then returned to ‘finish him off,’ shooting him several more times, seems to demonstrate cool deliberation” and not the sudden passion needed to support a voluntary manslaughter conviction, wrote Judge Mary DeGenaro.

Judges Cheryl L. Waite and Gene Donofrio concurred in her opinion.