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Judge declares mistrial in murder case
Paul Brown charged with 2009 murder of Ashten Jackson
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
The third time was not the charm for anyone Wednesday in the Paul Brown murder case after a Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge declared a mistrial.
Neither prosecutors, the defense attorney nor the defendant himself, the 37-year-old Brown, were happy that a second mistrial was declared in the case since 2012 by Judge Maureen Sweeney. Judge Sweeney granted a mistrial Wednesday, a day after the trial started.
Brown is charged in the May 2009 murder of Ashten Jackson, 17.
The trial almost had happened a third time in 2013, but an evidence mishap prevented the case from going forward just as it was about to begin.
On Wednesday, the judge told the frustrated Brown that the latest mistrial was necessary to ensure his right under the constitution to receive a fair trial.
The mistrial was declared because defense attorney Tony Meranto said he was never able to see a video prosecutors wanted to introduce Tuesday.
Meranto was able to view the video Tuesday after Judge Sweeney dismissed court for the day.
But he told the judge Wednesday that the video raised several new questions and would have altered his defense strategy.
Judge Sweeney set a new trial date of July 20 but that was of no consolation to Brown, who complained to a sister during a break that the case was too long and he was “tired.”
He asked Judge Sweeney why she did not dismiss the case but the judge said the matter was not cause for dismissal.
Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa contended Wednesday that Meranto had a chance to watch the video Tuesday and had ample time to prepare a cross- examination.
She also said he ignored an order issued by Judge Sweeney after the first mistrial was granted in January 2012 to meet with one of the lead investigators on the case, then Lt. John Kelty of the city police department, and go over each page and item of evidence.
Judge Sweeney, however, said just viewing the video for one evening was not enough time to prepare.
“He shouldn’t have to come up with a new strategy within 24 hours,” she said.
Meranto said he did not meet with Kelty because at the time, he was advised by Kelty’s counsel the two should not be in the same room because of their mutual animosity toward each other.
He was trying to figure out how they could meet when the issue that delayed the second trial in 2013 was brought up.
That issue was a cellphone police had in evidence that Brown claimed had a message on it that would clear him.
Judge Sweeney appointed a technician to examine the phone, and he testified that someone removed the SIM card in the phone and he could retrieve no information from it.
Judge Sweeney then dismissed the charge against Brown because no one could explain how the card was switched while the phone was in police custody.
Prosecutors appealed her ruling and presented evidence spearheaded by an investigation by the police department’s Internal Affairs Division that showed the technician examined the phone with the wrong SIM card in it.
Prosecutors also said that nowhere during interviews by detectives did Brown say he had a message on his phone that would clear him.
Judge Sweeney reinstated the charge, and Meranto appealed to the Seventh District Court Of Appeals, which upheld Judge Sweeney’s ruling.
At the time, Judge Sweeney referred to the “torturous history” of the case and admonished prosecutors for not knowing the history of the cellphone, and Meranto for misrepresenting the facts of the phone.
In January 2012, Kelty took center stage when a mistrial was declared because a statement from Jackson’s mother that was used in trial was never given to Meranto during the discovery process. Judge Sweeney declared a mistrial then because the trial already had gotten underway and threatened to hold Kelty in contempt of court.
Kelty secured legal counsel, but the judge did not find Kelty in contempt because the error was not intentional.
Instead, she ordered him and Meranto to go through all the evidence together, but as Meranto admitted Wednesday, that was never done.
Prosecutors say that Jackson was killed by Brown because he messed up a robbery of a man in a Wardle Avenue home. They said another man hatched the robbery plot and Jackson and Brown took part in it.
Jackson was missing for several days before his body was found in an East Side field May 30, 2009.
At the time, Brown was in the county jail on a weapons charge after being arrested outside of Jackson’s home when Jackson’s mother was making a missing-person report to police.
Prosecutors said a gun found on Brown when he was arrested – which belonged to Jackson’s mother – was the murder weapon.
In the video that was to be played Tuesday, the victim of the robbery identified Brown as participating in the robbery, although prosecutors said the man on the video identified Brown first, then another man.
Prosecutors said they could not explain how Meranto did not have the video. They said in a motion that three compact discs were turned over to Meranto and there were additional DVDs and 911 calls that did not fit on the discs supplied to prosecutors, and Meranto was informed of that by police if he needed them.