Judge in Toney murder case allows jurors to see videotape

YOUNGSTOWN

Judge Maureen Sweeney allowed a videotaped conversation of the co-defendant in the Aubrey Toney capital murder case to be played for jurors in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Thursday.

Toney, 33, could face the death penalty if convicted of the Sept. 25, 2010, murder of 74-year-old Thomas Repchic and the wounding of his wife Jacqueline, then 74, as they drove in a car on Southern Boulevard near East Philadelphia Avenue.

Police said Toney was looking for a man he was feuding with that drove a car similar to the Repchics and when he found out the man was in the area, he borrowed a Dodge Durango from his cousin, Lakeshia Toney, and he used that in the shooting.

The driver of that Durango, Kevin Agee, 28, was convicted for his role in the crime and was sentenced to 41 years to life in prison. He has refused to testify in this case, so prosecutors played a videotaped portion of a discussion he had with his mother and grandmother as well as his end of a cellphone conversation as he was in a police interview room on Sept. 28, 2010.

He also referred to Toney by his nickname and said that Toney was going to be in a lot of trouble.

The videotape was admitted after Judge Sweeney agreed to a request by prosecutors to designate Agee as unavailable to testify. Defense attorneys Paul Conn and John Juhasz objected and renewed their objection before the tape was played, but Judge Sweeney allowed the tape to be played.

For more on this story, see Friday’s Vindicator or vindy.com