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Homicide suspects arraigned
By JOE GORMAN
YOUNGSTOWN
Suspects in two recent homicides were arraigned in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court along with a man and a woman accused of using sex to lure a South Side man out of his home to be kidnapped and beaten.
Willie G. Wilks, 41, of Elm Street, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of aggravated murder and felonious assault in the May 21 shooting death of 20-year-old Orora Wilkins and wounding of Alexander Morales Jr. at an apartment in the 700 block of Park Avenue on the North Side.
Police say the shooting stemmed from a domestic dispute, and Wilkins was holding an infant at the time she was shot. The infant was not harmed.
Wilks was arrested the next day at the Rockford Village housing project on the East Side.
Wilks could face the death penalty if convicted. He is being held in the county jail on no bond after a pretrial hearing after his arraignment before Judge Lou D’Apolito.
Also arraigned for an April 29 homicide was DeJuan Thomas, 30, of Osborn Avenue on the West Side. He faces charges of aggravated murder, aggravated robbery and being a felon with a gun in the death of Kristopher Stuart, 29, in Stuart’s North Side home on Elm Street. He pleaded not guilty.
Police say Thomas walked into St. Elizabeth Health Center with several gunshot wounds shortly after Stuart was killed and he said, “I can’t believe he shot me” before he collapsed.
Investigators have theorized that there was a shoot-out in the home where Stuart was killed. Another man also was wounded in the shooting but he has not been charged with a crime.
Thomas was in court with his arm in a sling and his attorney, David Engler, asked Magistrate Eugene Fehr to set a reasonable bond so Thomas can continue receiving medical treatment. He said Thomas was taken into custody May 21 and needs to be able to have access for more complete treatment of his wounds.
“He requires almost daily medical treatment for the wounds he received in this incident,” Engler said.
Fehr instead said the trial judge, D’Apolito, would have to decide bond, and D’Apolito set his bond at $500,000 after his arraignment. Thomas has a pretrial set for Friday and a trial date of July 8.
Also facing tampering-with-evidence charges in the case is LaQuawn Hopkins, 35, of South Schenley Avenue, also on the West Side.
Arraigned on charges of kidnapping, aggravated robbery, burglary and felonious assault were Dymond Ortello, 27, of Brooklyn Avenue and Miesha Williams, 24, of Idlewood Avenue, in an April 13 incident in which Kevin Huggins, 37, said he was beaten and kidnapped.
Huggins told police he was on his way to a West LaClede Avenue home to meet Williams for prearranged sex. When he got there, two men pointed shotguns at him, bound him with duct tape, took $300 and then beat him repeatedly until he revealed where he kept a large sum of money.
He managed to escape, and Williams and Ortello were caught in his house, police said.
They both entered pleas of not guilty. They have pretrials Tuesday before Judge John M. Durkin and trial dates of June 24.