JONES TRIAL | Shooting scene described as chaos

JONES TRIAL | Shooting scene described as chaos

YOUNGSTOWN

The fatal shooting of Jamail Johnson and the wounding of 11 other people by gunfire at an Indiana Avenue house party near Youngstown State University began with pushing and shoving and a fist fight, a prosecutor told jurors this morning.

Rebecca Doherty, chief of the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s criminal division, made her opening statement in the trial of Columbus Jones Jr. before Judge John M. Durkin of common pleas court.

“This was truly a corner fistfight turned into a catastrophe,” she said.

Jones, 23, of Cambridge Ave., is charged with murder and 11 counts of felonious assault with firearm specifications, and dicharging a gun at or into a habitation in the Feb. 6, 2011, mass shooting.

Johnson, 25, was a YSU senior.

Jones became angry after being hit on the head by a bottle or another object during the scuffle that preceded the shooting, Doherty said.

Defense lawyer Lou DeFabio said prosecutors would be unable to meet their burden of proving their case against his client beyond a reasonable doubt.

“There’s confusion. It’s chaos. It’s dark. There’s music playing,” DeFabio told the jurors as he described the house party atmosphere.

Witnesses will differ as to who was involved in the scuffle, why it occurred, whether there was one or two shooters, and the identification of the shooter or shooters, DeFabio said.

YSU President Cynthia Anderson was in the crowded courtroom but she left before Doherty finished her opening statement.

A bailiff said anyone who left the courtroom would not be readmitted until the next recess.

Spectators including the media were being admitted to the courtroom only before court and during recesses.