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Witness describes torture at trial in double murder
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Lorenza Barnette
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Kenneth Moncrief
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Joseph Moreland
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
A witness in the double-murder case against Lorenza Barnette testified that he saw Barnette place a bag over one victim’s head and wrap duct tape around his face.
Asa Bush, who is in prison for an unrelated felonious-assault case, testified Friday before Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court that he and another man went to a Fairgreen Avenue apartment Aug. 11, 2009, to buy marijuana.
When they got there, they saw Darry B. Woods-Burt, 19, of the North Side, and Jaron L. Roland, 20, of Fairmont Avenue, tied up in the dining room.
Another defendant, Joseph Moreland, 28, of the Mahoning County Jail, believed that the men had given the location of his home to a rival gang.
“They were scared — crying — pleading for their lives,” Bush said.
Barnette, Moreland and Kenneth Moncrief, 26, of Fairgreen, are charged with aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping and arson in Roland’s and Woods-Burt’s deaths.
A fisherman saw a burning car near the Mahoning River that same day and called firefighters. The victims’ bodies, bound with duct tape around the hands, feet and faces, were found inside the vehicle.
Moreland and Moncrief will be tried later. All face the death penalty if convicted.
Before Bush took the stand, prosecutors showed photographs of the victims’ bodies at the scene and before autopsy. Family members, sobbing inside of the courtroom, left the gallery while the photos were displayed.
An aunt of the victims, who were cousins, said that her daughter, Kendris Staples, gave birth to a boy last month and named him Brandon Jaron, after her deceased relatives. Woods-Burt also went by Brandon.
Bush testified that at one point, Moreland got a phone call, told Moncrief and Barnette to “take care of it” and left.
Bush said “take care of it” meant kill Roland and Woods-Burt.
Moncrief and Barnette placed bags over the victims’ faces, he said, but Roland managed to make a hole in the bag.
“He was on the ground and you could see that he was breathing,” the witness said.
When Roland complained that he couldn’t breathe, Barnette told him, “‘That’s the [expletive] point,’” Bush said.
Barnette then placed another bag over Roland’s head and wrapped duct tape around it, he said.
“They did Bam [Woods-Burt] first and then Jaron,” Bush said,
Under cross examination by Barnette’s attorney J. Gerald Ingram, Bush acknowledged that he initially told police that Moreland and another man killed Woods-Burt and Roland.
He had his attorney contact police and changed his story, pointing to Moncrief and Barnette, in September 2010.
That was when Bush was facing felonious-assault charges with gun specifications. Ingram pointed out that Bush initially faced the possibility of 46 years behind bars on those charges.
Under a plea agreement in which he agreed to testify against the three defendants, Bush was sentenced to five years with the possibility of judicial release before serving the full sentence, the defense attorney said.
Testimony is set to resume Tuesday.