Murder suspect gets max on probation violation

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The suspect in the November killing of a South Side store owner received a maximum sentence on a probation violation Wednesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Larry McDonald, 19, who has an address on Truman Avenue, according to court records, received an 18-month sentence from Judge R. Scott Krichbaum after he was found to have violated his probation on a charge of carrying a concealed weapon.

McDonald was indicted on the charge in November 2013 after it was bound over from municipal court. He pleaded guilty in December 2013 and received a sentence of probation on Feb. 28, 2014, according to court records.

Later, McDonald was indicted by a grand jury on charges of aggravated murder and murder in the Nov. 19 shooting of 29-year-old Abdullah Nagi Mahdi at Mahdi’s 2608 South Ave. store, Reemas Fashions.

A pretrial hearing in the case is set for March 5 and a jury trial is scheduled for March 9.

McDonald also was indicted on a separate charge of aggravated robbery in the robbery of a Reemas Fashion store on Belmont Avenue the before the South Avenue shooting, and two counts of carrying a concealed weapon. All of the counts have firearms specifications attached to them.

Police say McDonald walked into the South Avenue store about 4:30 p.m., and employees were suspicious because he was acting like the person who had robbed the Belmont Avenue store the day before. They alerted Mahdi, who grabbed a gun he kept in the store, and at some point, the two shot at each other.

Mahdi was shot in the head and killed, and McDonald was hit twice in the stomach. He was hospitalized for several days before being transferred to the county jail from St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.

McDonald has no other adult criminal record and a court spokesman said he has no juvenile criminal record.