7 testify about Rollison's ID of Walker in murder case

WARREN — Prosecutors called seven witnesses to the stand Friday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to hear testimony about the time period just after Richard Rollison IV was shot in the parking lot of the Sunoco gas station on West Market Street on Oct. 26, 2013.

Each testified as to Rollison’s identification of TaShawn “Boo” Walker as the man who had shot him. Rollison died about four hours later of seven gunshot wounds. Walker was charged with aggravated murder in the case.

Prosecutors hope the testimony will convince Judge Peter Kontos that Rollison’s remarks should be admissible at trial, scheduled for Dec. 8. Atty. Lynn Maro of Boardman, representing Walker, filed the request for Friday’s hearing, called a suppression hearing.

Under Ohio law, the testimony of a person about what another person said is called “hearsay,” and not admissible unless it can be construed as the remarks of a person who knows he or she is dying, Maro pointed out in court documents.

Maro argues that the statements should not be admissible because they were “not based on his own personal knowledge and were not made while under the belief that death was imminent.”