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Man up for parole in 1990 murder
Marlon Gilmore serving time for 1990 murder of Thomas Repchic Jr.
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
The man sentenced for killing the son of a South Side elderly couple, who themselves were attacked in 2010, is eligible for parole next month.
Marlon Gilmore, 41, is serving a 30-year-to-life sentence for the Nov. 24, 1990, murder of Thomas Repchic Jr., 25, of Trenton Avenue and for shooting at another man.
The elder Repchic, Thomas Repchic Sr., 74, was killed Sept. 25, 2010, in what prosecutors say was a case of mistaken identity, and his wife, Jacqueline, was wounded when their car was fired upon at Southern Boulevard and East Philadelphia Avenue.
Judy Arnaut, with the victim/witness office of the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office, said a petition already is being circulated by family members and friends opposing Gilmore’s parole.
According to the Ohio Department of Corrections, this is Gilmore’s first chance at parole.
Police said Gilmore was 17 when he and three others held up the younger Repchic and a friend as they left Chester’s bar in the Uptown part of Market Street. Repchic’s friend told the robbers they had no money and ran away when the younger Repchic was shot in the chest.
Gilmore denied playing any part in causing the younger Repchic’s death and cried when he was sentenced by Judge William G. Houser, according to Vindicator archives.
A jury found Gilmore guilty of complicity to commit aggravated murder and complicity to two counts of aggravated robbery after deliberating for about eight hours. He was cleared of a charge of complicity to commit felonious assault.
At the time the younger Repchic was killed, Gilmore was on probation for a December 1989 shooting he committed when he was 16 and a student at The Rayen School. He was accused of shooting into a school bus and wounding a basketball coach for East Cleveland High School.
The man convicted of firing the shot that killed the younger Repchic, Robert Mahone, who was 18 at the time, was convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to at least 54 years in prison. A third man, Eric Veal, was charged with aggravated murder, but that charge was dropped.
Instead, he faced a charge of obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to one year in prison.
He was wounded in a February 1992 shooting that killed another man and wounded again in a March 1993 robbery.
Chris Hodge, who was 16 at the time, received a 36-years-to-life sentence.
One man, Kevin Agee, 28, has already been convicted of shooting the elder Repchics, and another man, Aubrey Toney, 32, is set to go on trial April 28 before Judge Maureen Sweeney.
Police say it was a case of mistaken identity that led to the Repchics’ car being shot. They said Toney was looking for a man with whom he had been feuding and who drove a car similar to the Repchics’.
Police said Toney fired at their car because he thought it belonged to his rival.
Toney can receive the death penalty if convicted.