Insanity plea entered by murder suspect

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A 17-year-old charged with aggravated murder, murder, aggravated robbery and felonious assault has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity.

Through his lawyer, Ross T. Smith, the defendant, Stashawn Dates, of East Pasadena Avenue, entered the written insanity plea Wednesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Dates, who initially was charged in juvenile court, was bound over to adult court and indicted by the county grand jury in August 2015 in the 2014 shooting death of Jesse Daviduk.

Daviduk, 21, was a passenger in a van during a drug deal, when he was shot in the head Sept. 15, 2014, at Dewey and South avenues, police reports said.

Daviduk died Oct. 2, 2014, in St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital after he was taken off life support.

Smith also filed a motion asking Judge Lou A. D’Apolito to approve hiring a mental-health expert at state expense to assist in his defense of Dates.

Another defense motion asks the judge to exclude from evidence all statements Dates made to police, who the defense says, didn’t properly advise Dates of his rights before questioning him.

Saying Dates is indigent and has local family ties, the defense also is asking the judge to reduce Dates’ bond from $500,000 to $50,000, with electronically monitored house arrest, if the judge deems such monitoring necessary.

A hearing on the defense motion for bond reduction will take place at 9 a.m. Jan. 7.