Mahoning prosecutors outline specific acts by 3 charged with aggravated murder

YOUNGSTOWN — Two men were bound, gagged, beaten and smothered at a home in the 400 block of Fairgreen Avenue before they were found dead in a burning rental car along the Mahoning River near West Avenue, prosecutors say.

The allegation is contained in the bill of particulars outlining the capital-murder charges against Lorenza I. Barnette, 29, of Lora Avenue, Joseph Moreland, 28, of county jail, and Kenneth Moncrief, 26, of the Fairgreen Avenue address.

Those three men are charged with aggravated murder, aggravated robbery, kidnapping and arson in the Aug. 11, 2009, deaths of Jaron L. Roland, 20, of Fairmont Avenue and Darry B. Woods-Burt Jr., 19, of the city’s North Side.

The suffocation victims, described by family members as inseparable cousins, were found with their heads encased in dark plastic garbage bags and duct tape, with their wrists and ankles bound with duct tape, after a fisherman spotted the burning car. No bullet or stab wounds were found on the victims.

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