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Victim in retaliation case says murder suspects were at his home
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A Princeton Avenue man, who police say was pistol- whipped by a man angry about the murder of his brother, testified at a preliminary hearing Wednesday that the suspects in the murder were at his home at the time.
Duane Eldridge testified in municipal court that Jawuan Brown, 20, showed up at his home July 27, the day after Brown’s brother Jarrell Brown, 18, was found shot to death at West Indianola Avenue and Market Street.
The two suspects police arrested in the murder, Brayquan Walker, 16, and James Johnson, 15, were both at his house with him, Eldridge testified.
Police said Brown hit Eldridge in the face with a pistol, was chased away with a shotgun by Eldridge’s father, then fired a shot at the home before the father returned fire with the shotgun, wounding Jawuan Brown and his sister with buckshot.
Jawuan Brown is charged with felonious assault, and Judge Elizabeth Kobly bound the charge over to Mahoning County Common Pleas Court after the hearing Wednesday.
Eldridge testified that Jawuan Brown, his sister, and several other people came to his home less than 24 hours after Jarrell Brown was found. They were asking if Jarrell Brown had been to his home the day before.
Eldridge said Jarrell Brown was at his home, but he made him leave because he did not like him.
When asked why, Eldridge said that Jarrell Brown broke into his mother’s house a couple of years ago.
As he was talking to the sister, Jawuan Brown hit him in the head with a semiautomnatic pistol, Eldridge said.
Eldridge said that’s when his father grabbed a shotgun he kept behind the front door and chased Jawuan Brown and the others off his porch.
Eldridge testifed that he heard gunshots directed toward his house, then his father returned fire.
Eldridge said he was sure there was more than one gun involved.
“I know the difference between a shotgun and a gunshot,” Eldridge said.
Eldridge said Walker and Johnson were at his home but he did not say why.
Police said Jarrell Brown was killed because he was involved in a “criminal matter” with Walker and Johnson that all three of them got arrested for.
Walker and Johnson are both being held in the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center.