Jury convicts man of illegal gun possession

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A Mahoning County jury found a 19-year-old city man guilty of illegal gun possession, having been disqualified from having a gun based on a juvenile court conviction for complicity to marijuana trafficking when he was 12.

An eight-woman, four-man jury found Donald J. Zuppo Jr., of South Dunlap Avenue, guilty of illegally possessing the weapon, a third-degree felony, after 35 minutes of deliberations Tuesday at the end of a one-day trial before Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

The conviction stemmed from a Jan. 12, 2013, dispute with a family member, in which a 12-gauge shotgun discharged inside Zuppo’s residence.

Zuppo fired the gun, but there were no injuries, said Nicholas Brevetta, an assistant county prosecutor.

The juvenile conviction that made Zuppo ineligible to have a gun occurred July 11, 2007, in Trumbull County, Brevetta said.

Judge Krichbaum ordered an expedited pre-sentence investigation, and he ordered Zuppo jailed without bond pending sentencing. No sentencing date has been set.

The delay in the case was due to Zuppo’s having been incarcerated in Pennsylvania on an aggravated-assault charge, Brevetta said.