Youngstown native on trial in Ashtabula murder case

By SHELLEY TERRY

Ashtabula Star Beacon

ASHTABULA

Opening statements took place Thursday in the trial of John Drummond Jr., the Youngstown native accused of murdering Ronald “Maceo” Hull of Ashtabula — the man he believed stole $10,000 from a mutual friend in 1997.

The trial is taking place in Ashtabula County Common Pleas Judge Alfred Mackey’s courtroom.

Thursday morning, jurors were taken to the scene of the crime — an apartment on West 38th Street in Ashtabula — before returning to the courthouse to hear attorneys’ opening statements.

Drummond, 36, is charged with two counts of aggravated murder and kidnapping. Public defender Marie Lane, who is representing him, said the evidence is not conclusive because Ashtabula police lost much of it over the years.

Drummond and five other men were charged in January with Hull’s Feb. 9, 1997, kidnapping and murder. The five others — Troy Jones, Jawann Evans, Eric Weaver, George Church and Stephen Boles — recently pleaded guilty to kidnapping charges in a plea deal with prosecutors in which the murder charges were dropped in return for testimony.

Hull was beaten, pistol-whipped and shot four times — in the neck, buttocks, left forearm and hip — before succumbing to his injuries, according to Thursday’s testimony.

Associate Assistant Attorney General Brian S. Deckert, who is serving as a special prosecutor in this case, said in his opening statement that Hull endured torture before he was executed, and it was all over a mistake — Hull was wrongly accused of stealing Troy Jones’ safe containing $10,000.

Hull’s mother wept in the back of the courtroom as the prosecutor described her son’s last hours.

It started the afternoon of Feb. 8, 1997, when Jones’ girlfriend called him while he was at a concert in Youngstown. She told him somebody stole the safe from their apartment while she was at the mall.

She believed it was Hull or Damien “Dino” Young, Deckert said.

“That’s bad luck for Maceo [Hull],” he said. “When Jones is informed, they all get in the car with guns and travel to Ashtabula. They call Church and Boles, who are already in Ashtabula, and they start looking for Hull.”

Ashtabula resident Monique Shaw said Hull heard people were looking for him, and she gave him a ride to Jones’ West 38th Street address.

Hull’s cousin, Monique Robinson, lived next door to Jones. When she discovered Jones and the men from Youngstown had Hull pegged as their prime suspect, she tried to warn him, to no avail. For the next hour or so, she heard gunshots, mumbling and yelling.

In her opening statement, Lane said the case is “centered around the devil — George Church.” She said Church was the driving force at the apartment.

Lane got her chance to talk to Church and the other co-defendants when they took the stand Thursday.

Church, who was convicted of attempted murder and kidnapping in another case after the Hull slaying, said testifying and cooperating with police goes “against everything I once believed in.”

Now 38, Church just finished 13 years behind bars for that conviction. He said he has a family and wants “to do the right thing.”

He was in a car with his ex-wife in 1997 when he heard his friend, Jones, was missing money, he said. So, he and Boles went to find Hull. Church said he brought two guns along.

In the meantime, Hull came to the apartment on his own, he said.

Church said he didn’t know who fired the shot that hit Hull’s buttocks, because the scene was total chaos. He said Hull wasn’t hurt “that bad.”

Church said he believed the whole matter was settled and that as he and Boles walked to the car, he saw Hull on all fours trying to get up.

“I heard a pop and I leaned back, and I saw Mr. Drummond standing over him,” he said.

Lane pounced on Church’s testimony, insisting it was all for a shorter sentence.