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Court affirms order to reinstate Brown murder charge
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
The 7th District Court of Appeals has upheld an order by a Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge to reinstate a murder charge in a 2009 case.
In a decision announced this week, the court affirmed the October 2013 order by Judge Maureen Sweeney to reinstate a charge of murder against Paul Brown of Falls Avenue.
Brown is charged in the May 2009 killing of 17-year-old Ashten Jackson.
In September 2009, Judge Sweeney dismissed the murder charge against Brown after his attorney, Anthony Meranto, presented evidence he said showed that a cellphone Brown had when he was arrested was somehow tampered with and a voicemail message that would have established an alibi was missing.
About a month later, however, Judge Sweeney had a hearing after prosecutors appealed her ruling.
They presented evidence that the phone was not tampered with, and the consultant who was used to check the phone used a wrong number when he did his investigation.
That was when the murder charge was reinstated.
In January 2012, the case was in trial but a mistrial was declared after it was discovered a police report was not provided to Meranto during the discovery process.
Brown has been serving a federal prison sentence on a firearm charge and remains in federal custody.
Jackson had gone missing May 25, 2009, and his mother and several friends and family members were looking for him when his mother received an anonymous call saying he was murdered.
His body was found in an East Side field.