43
Testimony continues in Agee trial
Photo
Agee
YOUNGSTOWN
A St. Dominic Church priest told a jury he saw Thomas Repchic alive for the last time in front of the church shortly before Repchic was fatally shot Sept. 25, 2010.
The Rev. William Rock testified Wednesday in the trial of Kevin Agee for the murder of Repchic. The trial resumes today at 9 a.m.
Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court is presiding. Opening statements were Tuesday.
Co-defendant Aubrey Toney, who also faces the death penalty, will be tried separately in Judge Sweeney’s court.
Father Rock said he saw Repchic, 74, of Trenton Avenue, pick up his wife, Jacqueline, in a car in front of the church rectory, 77 E. Lucius Ave., early that Saturday afternoon, after she finished her regular four-hour church telephone-answering shift.
Father Rock said he last saw Repchic as the car turned from Lucius in front of the church to go north on Southern Boulevard.
The Rev. Gregory Maturi, pastor of St. Dominic, where the Repchics were parishioners, recalled he was talking to another parishioner in the church parking lot on what he described as a “beautiful,” clear and “fairly warm” day, when he heard gunfire.
“As we were talking, I heard the shots. I heard a number of reports,” he said. “I remember questioning in my mind what had happened,” he added.
Detective Sgt. Ramon Cox, city police crime-lab commander, identified crime-scene photos showing the Repchics’ bullet- riddled 1990 burgundy Cadillac lodged against a curbside bench in front of the county’s South Side Annex, 2801 Market St., where it had come to rest just over five blocks north of the church after the gunfire.
Cox said he recovered a single spent .308-caliber Winchester shell casing from the street near that car. He said the bullet it contained was fired from a powerful, large-caliber rifle.
Jacqueline Repchic’s leg had to be amputated because of the shooting.
The police officer and the priests were cooperative witnesses for the prosecution, but another witness initially wasn’t as cooperative.
Larry V. Bevly Sr. of Youngstown arrived in court in handcuffs, accompanied by sheriff’s deputies, telling Judge Sweeney out of earshot of the jury he knew nothing about the case, did not want to get involved in it, and thought his conversation with a police officer concerning the matter was “off the record.”
With his handcuffs removed, Bevly later testified before the jury he saw a red SUV pass his residence near the shooting scene before and after the shots were fired.
“I heard the gunshots. I dove to the floor because it was so close to my house that I thought they were shooting at my house,” Bevly testified.
“When I came outside, there was so much gunpowder that I saw smoke rising and I smelled gunpowder,” he added. Bevly said he also saw the burgundy Cadillac run into the bench.
Rhys Cartwright-Jones, a defense lawyer for Agee, acknowledged in his opening statement that Agee was driving the Dodge Durango when the shots were fired from it, but he said Agee was unaware of Toney’s plans to shoot two men with whom Toney had been feuding.
One of the intended victims drove a 1990 burgundy Cadillac, according to Robert J. Andrews, an assistant county prosecutor.
Agee’s other defense lawyer, James Gentile, asked Judge Sweeney to declare a mistrial based on the behavior of an evasive and disruptive witness, who the judge had ordered handcuffed by sheriff’s deputies Tuesday in front of the jurors. Gentile said the jurors might hold that incident against Agee.
Judge Sweeney overruled Gentile’s motion for a mistrial, but she instructed the jurors not to hold her response to that incident against Agee. “It is the responsibility of the court to maintain the proper decorum at all times,” she said.
“There may be other witnesses that prove to be difficult, and this action or similar actions may have to be taken against those witnesses,” Judge Sweeney told the jurors, also instructing them not to hold her response to any future such incidents against Agee.