YPD officer testifies in murder case

July 24, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

A city police officer told jurors in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Thursday about how he pulled over a car last March that had a shooting victim inside.

Officer Thomas Wisener testified before Judge Maureen Sweeney in the murder trial of 26-year-old Matthew Cochrane that he first saw a car run a red light downtown at Hazel and Commerce streets early March 29, 2014.

Wisener testified he chased the car and pulled it over on Fifth Avenue, where the driver jumped out and told police they were trying to take their friend, Dajhon Neely, 20, of Liberty, to a hospital after he had been shot at Interstate 680.

“His friend was in the vehicle, and he was shot,” Wisener testified.

Wisener said he looked inside the car and saw Neely in the back seat, unresponsive. He said he and another officer then told the driver to proceed to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital and they followed him. Neely died two days later.

Cochrane, of West Hylda Avenue, is on trial for murder and two counts of felonious assault in the shooting. Investigators said Neely and Cochrane had been arguing via text messages over a woman before the shooting. A jury was seated before Judge Sweeney Tuesday and began hearing testimony Wednesday.

Wisener said the driver of the car, Kylie Grabe, told him at the hospital that they spotted a white car at a gas station at Midlothian Boulevard and South Avenue, and the car followed them north on South Avenue, until the car pulled next to theirs as they were at a red light and the driver fired at least four shots.

Wisener said he and the other officer followed the car with Neely in it the entire way to the hospital.

“We never lost sight of the vehicle,” Wisener testified.

Also testifying Thursday were members of the police department’s crime lab, who collected evidence at the hospital, where the car with Neely was kept until it was checked for evidence, and on South Avenue.