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Testimony begins in trial of near-fatal beating
By JOE GORMAN
YOUNGSTOWN
A man who was severely beaten on an East Side street in April had made an obscene gesture to a group of men in an SUV behind his car just before he was assaulted, his girlfriend testified in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Robin Wheaton, the girlfriend of Emil Smith, told jurors Wednesday in the courtroom of Judge R. Scott Krichbaum in the trial of Terrell Vaughn that Vaughn had hit her boyfriend first.
When two other men in the SUV got out, she ran.
“I was so scared,” Wheaton testified. “I got my dog and jetted out of there when I saw the other two get out, and one of them had a gun,” Wheaton said.
Vaughn, 35, is charged with attempted murder in the beating of Smith on April 21. Prosecutor Nick Brevata told jurors in his opening argument that Smith was beaten so severely that he is now in a wheelchair, has brain damage and trouble speaking and may not be able to walk again.
“They beat Mr. Smith and changed his life forever,” Brevata said.
Jurors were selected Wednesday. The case is not expected to take long as there are only three witnesses: Wheaton, Smith and Detective Sgt. Dave Sweeney, who was the lead investigator.
Brevata told jurors that Wheaton knew Vaughn but not his name because she had seen him in the same East Side neighborhood where she lives. Wheaton was able to pick Vaughn out of a photo lineup, Brevata said.
However, Doug King, Vaughn’s attorney, said that Wheaton made a wrong identification.
King said Wheaton has never given a consistent version of events or a consistent description of the vehicle that was behind the one she was in. He also said she told police Vaughn had a certain physical characteristic but when she picked him out of the lineup, she picked a person who does not have that characteristic.
Wheaton said the day Smith was beaten was a Sunday and that he had worked in the yard the majority of the day and had drunk a six-pack of beer. They decided about 6:15 p.m. to go to Hubbard for dinner and Smith stopped the car they were driving in the middle of the street at the bottom of Victor Avenue to adjust the DVD player in the radio console, Wheaton said.
In her videotaped interview by detectives the day Smith was beaten that was played for the jury, Wheaton tells Sweeney she told Smith perhaps they should have stayed home when he suggested dinner because he had been drinking.
That’s when the SUV appeared behind them and honked the horn, and Smith responded by thrusting his arm out the window of his car and making an obscene gesture, Wheaton said. A man she said was Vaughn got out of the passenger seat and hit Smith, and then the others got out. Wheaton said she ran behind a tree and watched the three pummel Smith for several minutes before leaving.
When she walked up to Smith he was badly hurt.
“His head was like double the size of his normal head,” Wheaton said.