City man found guilty of aggravated murder

December 20, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

A city man will likely spend more than 20 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of killing a man on the South Side in 2011.

Donovan Miller, 27, of Cambridge Avenue, was convicted Wednesday by a jury of seven men and five women of aggravated murder with a firearm specification and on another felony charge of tampering with evidence.

Miller also had been indicted on a charge of trafficking in marijuana, but the jury found him not guilty of that charge.

No date has been set for sentencing, but the aggravated-murder charge with the gun specification carries a potential sentence of 23 years to life. He could also face additional time for the tampering-with-evidence conviction.

The case is before Judge Lou A. D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

The charges stem from the murder of 22-year-old Quest Waggoner on Sept. 22, 2011.

The coroner ruled that Waggoner, 22, died in his Inverness Avenue residence of a single gunshot wound to the head.

Waggoner died several hours before his mother found him on a living-room couch, with the house doors unlocked, police said.

Police also said they found a small marijuana-growing operation and some packaged marijuana at that house, which led to the drug charges on which Miller was found not guilty.

Miller, during his trial, argued that he was made to confess to a crime he did not commit and that someone else likely shot and killed Waggoner. Prosecutors, however, said Miller knew key details about the crime and had previously admitted his involvement.