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Man pleads to shooting, will go to trial on murder
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A man charged with a shooting and murder on the East Side in separate incidents in 2012 pleaded guilty to the shooting but will stand trial on the murder.
Kevon Williams, 23, of Ohio Avenue, pleaded guilty Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to a charge of felonious assault with a firearm specification for shooting at a man Dec. 4, 2012, at the Red and White Market on Lansdowne Boulevard. The man was not hit.
The maximum penalty for felonious assault is eight years plus a mandatory three-year sentence on the firearm specification. Prosecutors did not recommend a sentence.
Williams will stand trial, however, on a charge of murder for the death of David Jackson, 26, who was missing for several weeks until parts of his body were found by a dog in the heavily wooded Sharon Line area of the East Side in February 2013.
Jury selection for the murder case was to have started Monday. The trial has been delayed, however, because of a defense motion that requires a hearing. Prosecutors say the shooting and murder are connected.
The plea comes after negotiations between prosecutors and defense attorney Jeff Limbian began last week and continued for about two hours Monday, but they could not reach a deal on the murder charge.
Williams was not indicted for the death of Jenkins or the shooting until Nov. 7 of last year. Assistant Prosecutor Nick Brevetta told Judge Lou D’Apolito before the plea was accepted both crimes were the result of a robbery in which Williams participated.
Brevetta said Williams shot at the man at the market and killed Jenkins because they all were involved in a robbery, but they shorted Williams on the profits, so Williams shot the one man and killed Jenkins.
Limbian asked Judge D’Apolito to exclude the robbery and motive for the felonious-assault charge from the trial. He said the state has no evidence Jenkins was murdered, and the state’s case is weak.
Judge D’Apolito, however, ruled jurors could hear about the felonious-assault charge. He said a witness in the case had heard Williams threaten someone with the same fate that befell Jenkins, and that jurors could hear that because it went toward proving a motive.
Jackson had been missing since late November 2012 until a man’s dog on Vaughn Avenue found his skull in February 2013. Other dogs belonging to the same owner found more bones that were identified as Jackson’s. The coroner’s office was able to identify the partial skeleton in March through dental records.