Jelks cleared of manslaughter, guilty of firearms counts; sentencing March 9

WARREN

A split verdict left Regan Jelks at first despondent, then relieved.

A Trumbull County jury found the 22-year-old guilty today of two counts of improper handling of firearms in a motor vehicle — but not guilty of the much more serious charge of involuntary manslaughter.

Jelks could get up to 18 months in prison and up to six more months in the Trumbull County jail, but she escaped a possible 11-year prison term. She’ll be sentenced March 9, after the Trumbull County Adult Probation Department conducts a presentence investigation.

The jury of six men and six women found her guilty of a crime that assumes she knew that her boyfriend of two years, Taemarr Walker, 24, of Warren, had put two guns in her car before he drove her to Risher Road, where he died in a confrontation with a Warren police officer.

But it found her not guilty of causing his death as a consequence of letting him put the guns in her car.

Police said Walker grabbed one of the guns from under the front seat just before the officer fired at him.

Walker’s death on Oct. 19, 2013, led to tensions and threats of violence toward Warren police and within the Warren schools, culminating in the cancellation of a Warren G. Harding High School football game a short time later.

But last March, at the same time officer Michael Krafcik was being cleared by a Trumbull County grand jury in Walker’s death, it was

indicting Jelks.

Read more about the case and verdict in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.