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Attorneys close in South Side stabbing case
By joe gorman
youngstown
Jurors deliberating the fate of a woman charged with two counts of felonious assault in a June 2012 stabbing left the Mahoning County Courthouse on Thursday without reaching a verdict, and are expected to continue deliberating today.
The attorney for the defendant, accused of stabbing another woman during a brawl after a homicide on Hilton Avenue, said in closing arguments Thursday that prosecutors have complicated their case.
Ed Hartwig, attorney for 30-year-old Tamika Jones, told jurors in common pleas court that prosecutors said when trial began that their case was simple: that Victoria Truman was stabbed June 13, 2012, at her South Side home by Jones.
However, Hartwig said witness inconsistency and lack of a weapon used to commit the crime had led prosecutors to tell jurors they could find Jones guilty of two counts of felonious assault because she participated in the brawl — and that prosecutors now have the entire sequence of events charted out for jurors.
“This started out as a factually simple case,” Hartwig said. “Now, we’ve got a flow chart.”
Prosecutors say Truman was the girlfriend of 24-year-old Dion Weatherspoon, who was killed in his front yard, which is three doors down from Truman’s house. Another woman came to the Truman home and started a fight with Truman after police cleared the homicide scene, and during that fight, Truman was stabbed several times and was in the hospital for about a week recovering from her injuries.
Assistant Prosecutor Rob Andrews told jurors that though they don’t have the weapon, they can infer deadly force was used because of the nature of Truman’s wounds and Jones was participating in the fight.
“Obviously, there was a deadly weapon involved,” Andrews said.
Andrews urged jurors to focus on the actions of Jones, not on other people involved in the fight.
“Focus on the defendant’s involvement, not whether anyone is guilty,” Andrews said.
Jones was seen making swinging motions just before Truman was stabbed, Andrews told jurors.
Hartwig said the witnesses who testified gave inconsistent testimony and not one person testified that they saw Jones stab Truman — and that Truman did not know who stabbed her.
Jurors began hearing testimony Tuesday. On Thursday, they received the case about 11 a.m. and deliberated all afternoon after lunch before leaving for the night about 4:30 p.m.