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Man sentenced for East Side homicide
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Terry Carter tried to speak Tuesday for her son who was murdered in September 2013, but she couldn’t.
Appearing before Judge Shirley J. Christian in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, Carter was to address Anthony Hopkins, 36, the man convicted Nov. 20 of killing her son, Frank James Brown.
When she reached the podium, she paused and seemed to be choked up. She blew her nose and spoke slowly in a voice that was barely audible. She said something about God and how she wanted Hopkins, of West Dewey Avenue, to know how the death of her son has affected her.
“I want him to know what he [Hopkins] did to my family,” Carter said. But she could say no more, so she walked back to her seat.
Hopkins was given a sentence of 321/2 years to life in prison on convictions of aggravated murder with a firearm specification, tampering with evidence and intimidation of a victim or witness to a crime. He was convicted after a recent trial before Judge Christian.
Brown, 36, was found late Sept. 28, 2013, amid shards of auto glass on Truesdale Avenue on the East Side. Police managed to track the glass to a car in a garage on Hazelwood Avenue on the West Side and found evidence there a window in the car had been broken by a bullet.
They charged Randall Miller and his wife, Megan Miller, with Brown’s murder originally. Megan Miller pleaded guilty to a charge of tampering with evidence. Randall Miller pleaded guilty to a charge of involuntary manslaughter with a 15-year prison sentence.
The day after Randall Miller pleaded guilty, Hopkins was indicted by a grand jury on aggravated-murder charges.
Prosecutors said during the trial that Hopkins shot Brown in Miller’s car but never said why, only that a person known as “B” would pay for any damage to Miller’s car. Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa said investigators think someone wanted Brown dead and wanted Hopkins to do the job.
She asked for a sentence of life without parole for the aggravated-murder charge, plus consecutive sentences on the other charges.
Defense attorney David Betras said his client maintains his innocence in Brown’s death, but he does feel sorry for the family. Betras asked for the minimum sentence, 20 years to life on the aggravated-murder charge, plus three years for the firearm specification and to run the other charges concurrently.
Betras said with a minimum sentence Hopkins would not be eligible for parole until he is 61, and even then he might not be around for it because of health issues.
Judge Christian gave Hopkins a sentence of 25 years to life on the aggravated-murder charge, plus three years on the firearm specification, 18 months for the tampering with evidence charge, and three years for the intimidation charge, which came from pointing a gun at Randall Miller on the night of the murder as they moved Brown’s body out of the car.