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Hudson trial enters day two of testimony
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
The lead detective in the murder case of a 17-year-old in 2011 testified Tuesday that it took months and several interviews before he was able to zero in on the defendant as a suspect.
Detective Sgt. Ronald Rodway of the city police department told jurors before Visiting Judge Paul Mitrovich in the trial of Frankie Hudson Jr., 22, that when he first got the case, he did not have any leads.
Rodway said in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, however, that he received several tips, and one of them led him to Hudson, whom he interviewed a couple of weeks after the death of Josh Davis on his Willis Avenue front porch Sept. 16, 2011.
He then interviewed him twice in March 2013.
Another defendant, Lamar Reese, was convicted of Davis’ death in April 2014 and sentenced to prison.
Hudson was to go on trial in December for Davis’ death, but Judge Maureen Sweeney declared a mistrial after a jury of 12 people was picked but there were not enough jurors left to pick any alternates.
Prosecutors said Davis was killed by Reese and Hudson because they tried to rob him of some marijuana he was selling and the robbery went bad.
A jury was picked Monday and visited the crime scene before hearing opening arguments in the afternoon.
Rodway said he also was informed by another witness that later in the evening after Davis was murdered, Hudson told the witness the plot to rob Davis went awry and Hudson admitted to shooting him.
Earlier in the day a prosecution witness was on the stand and was being cross examined, at times loudly, by one of Hudson’s attorneys, David Betras.
At one point Assistant Prosecutor Martin Desmond asked for a sidebar conference, and Betras was heard to say, “You can’t talk to me that way!” before Judge Mitrovich calmed both attorneys down.
Also testifying was a firearms expert from the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation about ballistic evidence recovered by police at the crime scene.