43
Jury selection begins in '09 murder case
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Jury selection began Tuesday for a man accused in a 2009 murder.
Jurors reported to the courtroom of Judge John Durkin in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to be selected to hear the case against Brandon Clinkscale, 29, of Selma Avenue.
Clinkscale is serving a three-year sentence in the Richland Correctional Institution on drug charges from Trumbull County Common Pleas Court. He is expected to be released on those charges in 2016.
He is one of four men, however, charged in the February 2009 shooting death of Melkanoe Bowman, 24, who was shot in the head at a home in the 900 block of Delaware Avenue.
Reports said Bowman was killed because of a feud he was having with Clinkscale and the other three men charged in his death — Ryan McGee, 27, Keilan Clinkscale, 25, and Charles Richardson, 30.
Of the three others charged in Bowman’s death, charges were dropped against McGee because of a ruling on evidence in 2012 and also Richardson, whose indictment was dismissed, according to court records.
Keilan Clinkscale pleaded guilty to reckless homicide and was sentenced to six years in prison for the Bowman murder and another homicide.
Across the street from the house where Bowman was killed, a 6-year-old boy was shot in his left foot as he slept, reports show. The boy’s foster parents told police they heard 30 to 40 shots in front of their residence the night Bowman was killed.