Defense asks for dismissal for third time

By Joe Gorman

jgorman@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

For the third time, a defense attorney asked a judge to dismiss a 2009 murder case in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court against his client or declare a mistrial.

The motion before Judge Maureen Sweeney came Tuesday afternoon, after opening statements were heard, when defense attorney Tony Meranto watched a video of a witness who picked someone other than his client, 37-year-old Paul Brown, out of a photo lineup.

The witness was a man prosecutors said Brown and the victim in the case, Ashten Jackson, 17, tried to rob sometime around May 24, 2009.

Meranto said he was never given the video, and the identification was never in the case file detectives kept on the case. He said it was something he should have known about beforehand so he could adequately prepare for both the defense of his client and cross-examination of the witness.

“It’s not only evidence I should get to view, it’s also exculpatory,” Meranto said.

The case also went to trial in 2012 and 2013.

At the request of the defense, Judge Sweeney declared a mistrial in January 2012 because police had not turned over all the evidence to the prosecution and defense.

In April 2013, before a jury was assembled, the trial was postponed when Judge Sweeney ordered production of records concerning Brown’s cellphone.

The defense sought dismissal of the case on the grounds that Brown’s cellphone had been tampered with in 2013. In that case, Judge Sweeney dismissed the charge against Brown but later reinstated it after a hearing when prosecutors appealed her decision. Meranto then appealed her decision to the 7th District Court of Appeals, who ruled against him.

“I just don’t know what to do with this case,” Meranto said.

Judge Sweeney let the jury go home and told prosecutors they had until today to find their list of evidence they turned over to the defense. She said she would issue a ruling on Meranto’s motion today as well.

Prosecutors said in opening statements they have the gun and the bullet that were used to kill Jackson.

Meranto, however, said no one knows where the bullet came from; someone else gave his client the gun, which belonged to the victim’s mother; and witnesses did not give statements to investigators until years after Jackson was killed.

Assistant Prosecutor Michael Yacavone said Brown killed Jackson after the two took part in a robbery of a Wardle Avenue man arranged by a third person. Yacavone told jurors Jackson’s brother saw Brown pick up Jackson on May 24, 2009. The two returned hours later, and Jackson was frantically searching for something.

Jackson’s body was found in a field on the East Side on May 30, 2009.

Meranto said the bullet Yacavone was talking about was found in a pile of clothes during the autopsy and not recovered from Jackson’s body. Meranto also said Jackson’s brother did not talk to police about when he last saw his brother until January 2012.

Meranto added that the person who set up the robbery gave the gun to Brown.