Man gets 17 years in East Side murder

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Family members of a man who was killed on the East Side almost two years ago could barely be heard above sobs Wednesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court as they told Judge Maureen Sweeney of their loss.

The mother and sister of 28-year-old Oneil Williams, who was killed in an Atkinson Avenue home Nov. 20, 2012, said he will not be able to see his children grow up, and his passing will leave a hole from which they will never recover.

“I miss my son so much,” Williams’ mother, Evelyn Williams, told Judge Sweeney just before she sentenced 21-year-old Jamel Smith of Kimmel Street to 17 years in prison for Williams’ death. “I have grandkids who will never see their daddy. I will never see my son again. This hurts me so bad.” Smith entered guilty pleas in August to a charge of voluntary manslaughter and being a felon in possession of a firearm as well as a firearm specification. He also pleaded guilty to a charge of felonious assault and a firearm specification in a separate incident in 2011 for which he was out on bond when Oneil Williams was killed.

Smith was given a sentence of six years on the felonious-assault case to run concurrently with the sentences for the death of Williams.

Prosecutors recommended the 17-year sentence. Defense attorney John Juhasz, who represented Smith in the voluntary-manslaughter case, asked for a lesser sentence, saying his client had taken responsibility and also that the case was one that could have gone either way had it gone to a jury.

Assistant Prosecutor Rob Andrews said there is no clear motive for the shooting but he did say Williams and Smith were both dating the same woman, and just before Williams was killed, there was an argument.