No sign of forced entry at shooting death scene, officer testifies

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The first police officer to arrive at a South Side homicide scene Sept. 22, 2011, testified he saw no sign of forced entry into the home of the victim, Quest Waggoner.

Officer Ron Jankowski testified in the jury trial of Donovan Miller, 27, of Cambridge Avenue, who was indicted on charges of aggravated murder with a gun specification, tampering with evidence and marijuana trafficking.

Testimony began Friday in Miller’s trial, before Judge Lou A. D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

When he responded to Waggoner’s Inverness Avenue residence at 7:50 p.m., Jankowski said Waggoner’s mother met him in the driveway and told him her son was inside the house and had been shot.

Jankowski said he then saw the 22-year-old victim lying on the couch, shot in the head, but he found nobody else in the residence.

“There was nothing to suggest a struggle,” Jankowski testified. “Nothing appeared to be disturbed,” he told Martin P. Desmond, an assistant county prosecutor.

Under cross-examination by Miller’s lawyer, Gus Theofilos, Jankowski said he found marijuana plants growing in the attic.

If convicted, Miller faces 23 years to life in prison.

Testimony resumes at 9 a.m. Monday.