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Murder suspect asks to vacate plea in other case
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A man slated to go on trial for two East Side homicides asked a judge in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Wednesday to vacate a plea and sentence in an unrelated 2011 drug trafficking case.
Dewaylyn Colvin, 33, is asking Judge Lou D’Apolito to vacate the pleas and 11-year prison sentence because he was told incorrectly that prison time was not mandatory for one of the charges to which he pleaded guilty.
The motion was filed Wedneday. A hearing date has not been set yet.
Colvin, along with two other men, is scheduled to stand trial later this year for the slayings of Adam Christian, 23, on Nov. 13, 2011, and Raymond Hayes, 20, on Nov. 16, 2011. Christian was found shot to death at a home in the 1400 block of Woodcrest Avenue. Hayes was found shot multiple times in a field at Gerwig and Knapp avenues.
In March 2013, Colvin pleaded guilty to three counts of trafficking in drugs, possession of drugs, illegal possession of a weapon and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and he was sentenced to 11 years in prison by Judge D’Apolito. He was indicted on the charges in December 2011.
In that case, Colvin was one of seven men indicted on charges of selling heroin. The estimated value of the heroin that was sold at the time was about $200,000.
Colvin was instrumental in leading prosecutors to the man responsible for killing an elderly woman in the St. Dominic Church parking lot in 2010.
In April 2005, Colvin also pleaded guilty to one count of involuntary manslaughter and a firearm specification and was given a six-year prison sentence.
In his motion filed Wednesday, Colvin’s lawyer, Timothy Cunning, wrote that when Colvin decided to plead guilty in 2013, he was told that one of the counts to which he pleaded guilty, engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, did not have a mandatory prison term. He was given a four-year sentence on that charge, which ran consecutive to the other charges he was sentenced on.
Because Colvin entered into the plea agreement thinking that prison time was not mandatory for that charge, he did not make an informed decision on accepting the plea, and the plea and sentence should be vacated, Cunning said.
Also charged in the Christian and Hayes slayings are Hakeem Henderson, 23, of Salem and San Diego and Michael Austin Jr., 21, of Midland Avenue.