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Testimony begins in death penalty case
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Wilks
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Ororo Wilkins reached for a baby just before she was fatally shot in the head, a witness in the trial of the man accused of murdering her testified Wednesday.
The baby had been dropped moments before by another man who had been shot, Assistant Prosecutor Rebecca Doherty told jurors Wednesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Doherty said during opening statements that 42-year-old Willie Wilks of Elm Street shot and killed Ororo Wilkins, 20, with an assault rifle.
He shot 25-year-old Alex Morales in the back, wounding him, she said, after he argued with Wilkins’ brother, Willie Wilkins, over how he treated their mother.
Wilks is charged with aggravated murder, felonious assault, two counts of attempted aggravated murder and other weapons charges in the May 21 shooting. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
Morales said he was on the porch of a Park Avenue home with Ororo Wilkins and her brother when Wilks drove up in a car with an AK-47 and asked where Willie Wilkins was.
“He raised an AK and asked where [Willie Wilkins] was,” Morales testified. “I turned to go inside with the baby, and that’s when he shot me.”
“I drop the baby. I get up a second time to go in the house ... I fall again, and as I get up, I see him shoot ‘Ro Ro’ [Ororo Wilkins].”
“After I dropped the baby, ‘Ro Ro’ is going to retrieve the baby, and that’s when Wilks shot her,” Morales testified.
Jurors were seated Monday after more than three weeks of jury selection and a visit to the crime scene Monday afternoon. Judge Lou D’Apolito is hearing the case.
An argument over money — or the lack of access to money — led to the shooting, Doherty said.
Doherty said Wilks was dating Wilkins’ mother, Mary, at the time. Willie Wilkins and Morales asked to borrow $100 from Wilkins’ mother for gas money to drive to a construction job the next day, she explained. When they went to the bank, however, she did not have the proper bank card, but Wilks had several of her bank cards — which upset Willie Wilkins.
They went to Wilks’ home, and Willie Wilkins and Wilks argued, and Wilks pulled a 9 mm handgun on the son before he left, but they did have the card. Later, Doherty said, Willie Wilkins called his mother to see if she was all right but also to express his displeasure that she stayed with Wilks, despite the fact her boyfriend had pulled a gun on her son.
Wilks took the phone from the mother and argued with Willie Wilkins, Doherty said.
Judge D’Apolito had to admonish jurors about some of the testimony of one of the officers on the scene, Jessica Shields, who was the second officer to arrive. She described for the jury the sight of Willie Wilkins wearing a pair of shorts soaked with his sister’s blood and brain matter on them.
“It was the most gruesome scene I’ve ever seen,” Shields testified.
Shields said she tried to calm down Willie Wilkins, who was distraught and yelling at police for not taking his sister to the hospital.
Shields said she tried to explain to him that his sister was gone, and that he needed to calm down to help police find the person who did it, but at one point, a supervisor ordered her to handcuff Willie Wilkins and place him in a squad car until detectives arrived. She said she was not wearing gloves at the time.
“I had brains all over my hands and blood all over my uniform,” Shields testified.
After she was finished testifying, defense attorneys requested a sidebar conference with the judge. Judge D’Apolito then told the jurors that though the case is very emotional, they cannot rely on emotions or empathy because those are not evidence.
Shields also testified that Willie Wilkins and Morales both told her that Willie Wilks was responsible for the shootings. The first officer on the scene, Melvin Johnson, testified earlier that Morales told him Willie Wilks was responsible as well.
In opening statements, Doherty said Willie Wilkins was in an upstairs room of the home and saw the shooting — and that Wilks fired a shot at the window but missed.