Jury rules for defense in murder case

July 25, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Matthew Cochrane shuffled along in shackles Tuesday as jury selection began in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for his murder trial.

Late Friday afternoon, he strode out of the courtroom of Judge Maureen Sweeney a free man after that jury found him not guilty of murder and two counts of felonious assault in a March 29, 2014, shooting that killed 20-year-old Dajhon Neely of Liberty. Jurors received the case Friday afternoon and deliberated for barely an hour before rendering their verdicts.

As they did so, two men sitting behind Cochrane clapped and smiled broadly as Neely’s sister burst into tears.

Defense lawyer Tony Meranto said the verdicts were the only ones that could have been rendered.

“This is absolutely the correct outcome here,” Meranto said.

Prosecutors declined to comment.

Cochrane has been in jail since his arrest in May 2014 for the death of Neely, who died March 31, 2014, in St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital. Police said Neely was shot because he and Cochrane had been arguing over a woman via text message.

Cochrane was a passenger in a car that was shot at on South Avenue at the junction with Interstate 680. He and the two men in the car had run into Cochrane earlier that night at a gas station at South Avenue and Midlothian Boulevard, where they argued, then police said Cochrane followed them down South Avenue before pulling up beside them and firing shots from his own car. Neely was the only person hit.

Jurors were seated Tuesday, and testimony began Wednesday.

Meranto told jurors in his opening statement Wednesday that the two main witnesses, the men in the car with Cochrane, Vernon Johnson and Kylie Grabe, were not reliable. He said they gave inconsistent statements to police and did not come forward until they were arrested for other crimes.

Prosecutors countered that when Cochrane was interviewed by police, he admitted running into Neely and his friends at the gas station and following them down South Avenue.

Meranto said he told his client that he must take advantage of the opportunity the jury gave him Friday.

“I said, ‘Remember this the rest of your life. You don’t ever want to be in this position again,’” Meranto said.

Cochrane’s family and friends were excited but were told by deputies that even though the shackles were taken off Cochrane, he was still in their custody until he officially could be processed out of the jail. Cochrane bounded out of the courtroom with a smile on his face.

All his father, Matthew Cochrane Sr., would say was, “I just want my son home.”