Toney trial may start this week

By Joe Gorman

jgorman@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The final stage of jury selection is scheduled to begin today in the death-penalty case of a man accused of a 2010 homicide that police say was a case of mistaken identity.

The 45 or so survivors of a pool of 140 jurors who reported April 25 for orientation in the case of 33-year-old Aubrey Toney will return to Mahoning County Common Pleas Court today, as lawyers on both sides begin the process of choosing a final group of 12 jurors plus four alternates to hear the case before Judge Maureen Sweeney.

Toney can face the death penalty if convicted of the Sept. 25, 2010, shooting death of Thomas Repchic, 74, and the wounding of his wife, Jacqueline, who was 74 at the time.

Police said Toney was in a car with another man, Kevin Agee, and shot at the vehicle the Repchics were driving on Southern Boulevard at East Philadelphia Avenue because it resembled the car of a man with whom Toney was feuding.

Toney faces charges of aggravated murder as well as a count of attempted murder and two counts of felonious assault.

Toney is eligible for the death penalty because prosecutors are saying he killed a person while trying to kill two or more people.

Agee, 28, already was convicted and sentenced to 31 years to life in prison for his role in the crime. He has maintained his innocence.

Since the orientation, the jurors have been called in individually to be interviewed by defense attorneys, county prosecutors and the judge to see if they can serve on the panel.

If jurors find Toney guilty of murder with death-penalty specifications, the trial then will enter the mitigation phase.

In that phase, defense attorneys will present evidence to jurors as to why they should spare Toney’s life.

Earlier this month, Willie Wilks, 42, was sentenced to death after being convicted of killing a 20-year-old woman in May 2013 on the North Side.