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Court filing details charges in ’09 double slaying
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Lorenza Barnette
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Joseph Moreland
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Kenneth Moncrief
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 contain-ed in the bill of particulars outlining the capital- murder charges against Lorenza I. Barnette, 29, of Lora Avenue; Joseph Moreland, 28, of Mahoning County jail; and Kenneth Moncrief, 26, of the Fairgreen Avenue address.
The three 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.
The bill of particulars, filed Wednesday by three assistant Mahoning County prosecutors, says Barnette bought the duct tape and plastic bags at a store. The items of evidence prosecutors listed for the defense includes a discount-store surveillance video and sales receipt.
The bill of particulars does not specify a motive for the slayings.
When Barnette was arrested in October 2009, Capt. Mark Milstead of the city police detective bureau said the retail-store security video of Barnette “provided significant evidentiary value” and a number of leads to other avenues of investigation.
Both victims’ cellular phones were taken by the suspects, who used an accelerant to set the car ablaze, the bill of particulars says.
The prosecution witness list includes Dr. David M. Kennedy, county coroner; Dr. Joseph Ohr, deputy coroner and forensic pathologist; Richard Jamrozik, coroner’s investigator; a representative of the state fire marshal’s office; six crime-lab specialists from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation; 15 current police officers; one retired police officer; and cellular-phone and discount-store records custodians.
The death-penalty specifications against the suspects say they purposely killed more than one person, and they killed while committing aggravated robbery, kidnapping and arson.
The cases are assigned to Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Jury trials are set for May 2 for Barnette, May 23 for Moreland and Oct. 11 for Moncrief.