Man gets 10 years in slaying

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

An East Side man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison in a Nov. 20, 2012, homicide.

Jamel R. Smith, 22, of Kimmel Street, drew the sentence Monday from Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in the shooting of Oneil Williams, 28, of Pontiac, Mich., who was found dead in the rear bedroom of a two-story house in the 1900 block of Atkinson Avenue.

The coroner’s office said Williams died of gunshot wounds to the head, chest and abdomen.

The sentence, which immediately followed Smith’s guilty plea, consists of seven years for voluntary manslaughter, plus three years for a firearm specification.

The guilty plea and sentence came on the day Smith’s jury trial was to have begun.

In the plea deal, the prosecution dropped a charge of being a felon with a gun.

Smith had initially been charged with murder, which would have carried a sentence of 15 years to life in prison, plus three years for the gun specification.

Police said Williams was killed because of an argument over a woman.

Judge Sweeney imposed a three-year prison term in a separate felonious- assault case dating back to May 10, 2011, to run concurrently with the homicide sentence, after Smith also pleaded guilty to that charge.

The prosecution dropped a firearm specification in that case.

Smith will get credit for the 21/2 years he already has been jailed awaiting conclusion of his cases.