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Mrs. Repchic testifies she heard gunshots, husband didn't answer
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Jacqueline Repchic testified Wednesday in the first day of the trial of the man accused of killing her husband that she remembered hearing gunfire and asked her husband about it — only he didn’t respond.
Testifying in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court from a wheelchair, Jacqueline Repchic said when her husband, Thomas, didn’t answer, she noticed their car was about to head onto Market Street as it was traveling from Southern Boulevard, so she grabbed the wheel and steered the car into a curb.
“My husband and I were talking and I heard, ‘ping, ping, ping’ sounds, and I said to Tom, ‘Somebody is shooting at us,’” Jacqueline Repchic testified. “He didn’t answer.”
Aubrey Toney, 33, claims he is innocent of the Sept. 25, 2010, death of Thomas Repchic, 74, and the wounding of his wife Jacqueline, then 74, as they rode in a car at Southern Boulevard and East Philadelphia Avenue about 1 p.m. He could face the death penalty if convicted of aggravated murder, attempted murder and felonious assault.
A jury was seated before Judge Maureen Sweeney late Tuesday afternoon after more than a month of individual questioning.
In her opening statement, Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa said that Toney had been feuding with a man who was known to drive a car similar to the Repchic’s maroon Cadillac, and when he found out the man was in the neighborhood, he borrowed an SUV from a cousin, grabbed a .308-caliber assault rifle and waited for the car before firing several rounds into it.
“He goes out hunting for this maroon Cadillac,” Cantalamessa said.
Jacqueline Repchic said she did not realize she had been wounded in the leg. She later had part of her leg amputated below the knee because of the wound.
“He [Thomas Repchic] didn’t say anything, but I was shook up,” she testified as to what happened after she heard the gunshots. “He didn’t answer me. He didn’t talk to me.”
Jacqueline Repchic said when the car stopped, she tried to get out of the passenger’s door, but instead she fell.
“I actually fell out because I realized I didn’t have a foot, so I fell out on my stomach and face,” she said.
Youngstown police officer David Wilson, first officer on the scene, said Jacqueline Repchic kept screaming for her husband before she was whisked away by an ambulance.
“She was highly emotional and she kept screaming, ‘Is my husband alive? Is my husband alive?’” Wilson testified.
Toney gave the opening statement in his own behalf, asking jurors to set aside emotion and base their verdict on the evidence they will hear.
“Keep your minds open while deciding this case,” said Toney, who is represented by attorneys John Juhasz and Paul Conn.
Police were able to use witness accounts and surveillance video from nearby businesses to catch the SUV that was used in the shooting, Cantalamessa told jurors. They traced the SUV to the cousin’s house and got a search warrant; they found clothing that witnesses said was worn by the suspects and a live .308 round that Cantalamessa told jurors was found to have been rifled through the same gun as spent shell casings recovered from the scene.
Toney could face the death penalty if convicted because he is charged with killing a person while trying to kill two or more people. Cantalamessa said Toney raked the car with gunfire, which proves he was out to kill whoever was in the car.
“He kept firing all the way down the side and across the back,” Cantalamessa said. “He was trying to kill anyone and anything in that Cadillac.”
Wearing a blue shirt, dark pants and striped tie, Toney said he was nowhere near the scene of the shooting. He said the shooting of the couple was tragic, and he said everyone could relate to something bad happening to their parents and grandparents, but he urged jurors to not let emotion get in the way of the facts of the case.
“Let’s not allow the fact we can relate and sympathize with the Repchics lead you to a rush to judgment,” Toney said.
He also asked jurors to lay aside any prejudices or preconceived notions they may have when deciding his fate.
In 2012 a co-defendant, Kevin Agee, 28, was convicted of his role in the crimes and is serving a sentence of 41 years to life in prison.