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Judge to issue warrant for witness
Photo
Jamar Houser
YOUNGSTOWN
A judge said he’ll issue a material- witness warrant for the arrest and detention of a woman who identified Jamar Houser as the man she saw running from the St. Dominic Church parking lot around the time Angeline Fimognari was fatally shot outside the church.
The witness picked Houser, 20, of Volney Road, the suspect charged with robbing and killing Fimognari, out of a police photo lineup as the man she saw running as she drove west on Lucius Avenue.
Houser faces the death penalty if he’s convicted of the Jan. 23, 2010, slaying of Fimognari, 80, of Sheridan Road, after she left an 8 a.m. Mass that day at the church.
Judge Lou A. D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court said he’ll issue the warrant for the witness, who failed to appear for a 9 a.m. Monday pre-trial evidentiary hearing.
Defense Atty. John B. Juhasz said he and his co-counsel, Lynn Maro, personally served a subpoena Saturday on the witness to appear in court Monday morning, but the witness told them she was starting a new job on Monday morning and would not be in court.
The defense seeks to exclude the photo lineup identification of Houser from evidence in the trial, saying the detective’s presentation of the lineup was unduly suggestive.
Rebecca Doherty, an assistant county prosecutor, told the judge she received text messages from the witness over the weekend “that, quite frankly, just indicate to me that she has some concerns about being here, that something happened between Thursday night and today’s date, and I don’t know what that is.” Doherty did not elaborate.
The evidentiary hearing will resume at a later date.