Body found in lot identified

Staff report

WARREN

The Trumbull County coroner has identified the man whose body was found in a vacant lot on Dover Avenue in Warren Township on Wednesday as Jamaul R. Jones, 28, of Warren.

Jones’ death was ruled a homicide as a result of multiple gunshot wounds.

A Dover Avenue woman and her dog found Jones’ body in a vacant lot near her house about 9 p.m. The woman investigated after noticing a smell coming from the lot.

Jones is the man whose family reported him missing July 9 after he disappeared July 8.

He had been going to an unknown house on Meadowbrook Avenue Southeast when he went missing, said Jones’ cousin, Roderick Lewis.

Jones had an address of 1929 Burton St. SE in April 2012 when he was indicted in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court on a cocaine-possession charge.

He was free on bond and due in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court later this month for a pretrial in the case.

He was living on Bellcrest Avenue Southwest when he was charged with felonious assault in May 2011. A grand jury later refused to indict him on that charge.

He was living on Linden Avenue Northeast in 2005 when he was convicted of cocaine possession with a specification that he used a gun in commission of his crime. He was sentenced to two years in prison.

The location where Jones’ body was found isn’t far from the intersection of Highland Avenue and Seventh Street Southwest, where the body of Valerie L. Warren, 42, of Warren, was found April 5 by a newspaper carrier. Warren had been shot in the head and neck, most likely about 11 p.m. April 4, police said.

That homicide has not been solved, though Warren Township police say they are working on leads.