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Man pleads guilty in missing body case
Dogs found victim’s dismembered body months after shooting
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A man charged in a 2012 murder in which the victim’s body was not found for months entered a guilty plea Monday — the day jury selection was to begin in his trial.
Kevon Williams, 23, entered an Alford Plea of guilty in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to charges of involuntary manslaughter, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse for the late November 2012 shooting death of 26-year-old David Jackson.
It took the entire morning, after back-and-forth talks between prosecutors, defense attorney Jeffrey Limbian and some of Williams’ relatives, and at one point, even Judge Lou A. D’Apolito joined the negotiations.
Williams opted to be sentenced immediately, and Judge D’Apolito gave him a sentence of 10 years, with credit for time served while awaiting the outcome of his case.
The judge followed the recommendation of prosecutors for sentencing.
An Alford Plea means a defendant maintains his innocence but admits that there is enough evidence that a jury may conclude that he committed the crime for which he is charged.
Williams was indicted in November 2013 in the death of Jackson, whose body was found in February 2013.
A man’s dog on Vaughn Avenue in the Sharon Line neighborhood found his skull. Other dogs belonging to the same owner found more bones that were identified as Jackson’s.
The coroner’s office was able to identify the partial skeleton in March through dental records.
Williams is serving a three-year sentence after entering guilty pleas to counts of possession of drugs and a count of selling counterfeit drugs that was handed down from common pleas court in September 2013.
In December 2011, he was part of a police standoff on Ohio Avenue on the North Side in which officers called for a domestic situation were told by a woman who got out of the apartment that Williams was holding several people hostage inside.
In November, Williams pleaded guilty to charges of felonious assault for shooting at a man at a Lansdowne Boulevard market on the East Side in December 2012.
Prosecutors have said the shooting at the market — where the victim was not injured — and the murder of Jackson are related.
Williams shot at the man at the market and missed but killed Jackson because they all were involved in a robbery, but they shorted Williams on the profits.