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2009 murder case returns to appeals court
YOUNGSTOWN
After two mistrials, the case of a man charged in a 2009 homicide is returning to the 7th District Court of Appeals.
Atty. Anthony P. Meranto filed a notice of appeal last week on behalf of the defendant, Paul Brown, after Judge Maureen A. Sweeney overruled defense motions for dismissal of the case and for a stay of further trial court proceedings.
In ruling against a stay, Judge Sweeney, of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, set Sept. 21 as the new jury trial starting date.
Brown is charged with the murder of 17-year-old Ashten Jackson.
The prosecution contends Brown, 37, of Falls Avenue, and another man picked Jackson up May 25, 2009, hoping Jackson would help Brown commit a robbery.
Police arrested Brown on a weapons charge shortly after Jackson went missing.
Jackson, who had been shot four times, was found dead in a field on the city’s East Side on May 30, 2009.
At the request of the defense, Judge Sweeney declared a mistrial in January 2012 because police had not turned over all of the evidence to the prosecution and defense.
In April 2013, before a jury was assembled, the trial was again postponed when Judge Sweeney ordered production of records concerning Brown’s cellphone.
The defense sought dismissal of the case on the grounds that Brown’s cellphone had been tampered with.
Meranto said Brown had told police another man had left a message on his cellphone admitting the murder.
After evidentiary hearings, Judge Sweeney dismissed, and later reinstated, the murder charge.
Finding that Brown had not told police about the message left on his cellphone, a three-judge panel of the 7th District Court of Appeals unanimously upheld reinstatement of the murder charge against Brown on Dec. 29, 2014.
On June 16, 2015, after a day of testimony before a jury, Judge Sweeney declared a mistrial when prosecutors played a video of a police interview with a witness Meranto said he was never told about and who was never mentioned in the case file.
In his July 13 motion, Meranto said trying Brown again would violate the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy.
Prosecutors replied that a mistrial doesn’t bar a re-trial unless there was intentional deception on the part of the prosecution.