43
Motion sealing order sought
YOUNGSTOWN
To avoid additional pre-trial publicity, the defense lawyers in Aubrey F. Toney’s capital-murder trial have filed a motion for a court order allowing them to file their motions under seal until completion of the jury selection that is in progress.
Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court has not yet ruled on the motion filed Wednesday by Attys. John B. Juhasz and Paul C. Conn.
Toney, 33, of West Judson Avenue, is charged with aggravated murder in the shooting death of Thomas Repchic and with attempted murder the wounding of Repchic’s wife, Jacqueline, on Sept. 25, 2010, on the city’s South Side.
The Repchics were shot in the car they occupied at Southern Boulevard and Philadelphia Avenue after Thomas Repchic picked up his wife from her job at St. Dominic Church.
Toney is accused of shooting the Repchics in a case of mistaken identity because they occupied a car similar to one driven by people with whom Toney had been feuding.
Kevin D. Agee Jr., 29, of Garfield Avenue, who admitted driving the SUV from which the shots were fired, is serving 31 years to life in prison for his role in the crimes.
Many members of the jury-selection pool “have been exposed to pretrial publicity,” the motion says.
“Moreover, a number of jurors have watched media accounts of the case even after the orientation and admonitions by the court” not to see, hear or read media accounts of the case, it adds.
“To permit those jurors to be exposed to additional information that would be revealed through the filing of motions, runs the risk, indeed, increases the risk, the unacceptable risk, that the jurors will be exposed to additional pretrial publicity,” the motion says.
“When pretrial publicity is overt and pervasive, the trial judge should take remedial measures,” the defense lawyers said.
Judge Sweeney overruled a defense motion to move Toney’s trial to another Ohio county due to extensive pre-trial publicity.
She wrote, however, that she would allow the defense to renew that motion if the attempt to seat a fair and impartial jury here fails.