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H Block member indicted for two unsolved homicides
By joe gorman
youngstown
A member of the H Block street gang — called a “one-man crime wave” by a detective — was indicted Thursday in two unsolved murders, including the killing of a man at a South Side market in 2010 that left his young sons orphans.
Frankie “Tank” Hudson, 20, was indicted on charges of aggravated murder and aggravated robbery in the Dec. 14, 2010, killing of 44-year-old Christopher Weston of Lordstown at an Overland Avenue market; and the Sept. 16, 2011, death of Josh Davis, 17, of Willis Avenue.
Also facing the same charges in Davis’ death is Lamar Reese, 20.
Hudson is awaiting sentencing Monday before Judge Maureen Sweeney of the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on several robbery counts that prosecutors say he committed as a member of the gang, which has its base of operations around the Hilton Avenue area of the South Side.
Reese already is in prison on a prior burglary charge.
Capt. Mark Milstead, Youngstown chief of detectives, said Detective Sgt. John Patton “doggedly” worked the Weston case for years. He said that case, as well as the Davis case, which was worked by Detective Sgt. Ronald Rodway, both had similarities.
Milstead said in both cases, Hudson was a suspect early on but detectives could not find enough evidence to get an indictment. He said what turned the tide is that others who hung in the same circle as Hudson gave police information on the slayings when they were arrested, especially in the case of Weston, a single father who was working in the store that day for the manager, a friend who had just had surgery and had told Weston not to bother opening the store.
Weston’s wife and mother of his sons, 12 and 8 at the time, had died the previous March from a heart ailment. There were several benefit drives after Weston was killed to make sure the boys had plenty of Christmas presents because their father was killed so close to the holiday. Weston was also a Navy veteran of the Gulf War. The eldest child had turned 12 the day his father was killed.
“It’s nice,” Milstead said of an indictment in the Weston case. “It’s all the better when you have an innocent victim to bring some closure to the family.”
Weston was found in the store by a customer. His pockets were turned inside out, but the cash register was unopened, although his wallet was next to him. Milstead said police are still investigating the case and that robbery was the main motive.
Milstead said Davis was killed when Reese and Hudson went to rob Davis, who was a marijuana dealer, and they shot him dead on the porch of his Willis Avenue home.
Rodway said he is happy that he can tell Davis’ mother that the case has been solved. Rodway said she has been involved every step of the way in the case.
Hudson, Rodway said, is bad news.
“He was kind of a one-man crime wave,” Rodway said.
Rodway said Hudson and Reese were suspects in the Davis case early on as well.
“Their names just kept coming up from anonymous sources,” Rodway said. “It was one of those cases where we didn’t have enough evidence at first.”
Rodway said detectives also used cellphone evidence to help them out. Rodway and Milstead also credited assistant county prosecutor Martin Desmond for his work on the case.
Milstead said Hudson is a suspect in the murder of a man in November 2010 in Columbus.
Hudson had entered guilty pleas May 16 to a count of robbery, three counts of aggravated robbery, and participation in a criminal gang with gang specifications and firearms specifications attached. He is one of four members of the gang who were indicted in the crimes they are accused of committing last year. Prosecutors were recommending a sentence of seven years. At a plea hearing in July, prosecutors wanted to revoke his guilty pleas because they said he was not truthful and that he was a suspect in homicides.