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Hudson found not guilty in murder case
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
It’s one down, one to go for Frankie Hudson Jr.
A jury in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court found Hudson not guilty Wednesday of aggravated murder, murder and aggravated robbery in the September 2011 death of a 17-year-old boy on the South Side.
Hudson, 22, who faces another murder charge in an unrelated case, could barely keep from weeping as the verdicts were read by visiting Judge Paul Mitrovich. He embraced his defense attorney David Betras, who told him: “I saved your life, bro.”
Jurors were seated Monday and heard closing arguments Wednesday morning. They got the case to deliberate a little after 2 p.m. and returned with their verdicts shortly after 4.
Judge Mitrovich found Hudson guilty on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, which both sides agreed to have the judge decide. He was given a three-year sentence, the maximum, which was tacked on to a nine-year sentence he was given in 2014 for being a member of the H Block Street Gang.
Hudson was accused of killing 17-year-old Josh Davis on the porch of Davis’ Willis Avenue home Sept. 16, 2011, during a robbery that went awry. Afterward, Davis’ mother, Marsha Watkins, said she hopes Hudson is found guilty in his next trial.
“This is crazy,” Watkins said.
Davis was killed on his porch while his mother was inside the home.
After court, Watkins confronted several members of Hudson’s family, and they exchanged shouts in the hallways. Both groups had to be escorted out of the courthouse by deputies.
Another person, Lamar Reese, was convicted of Davis’ death in April 2014 and was sentenced to life in prison.
Betras said he has always had faith in the jury system. He also blamed one of the prosecution’s star witnesses, Aaron Triplett, who prosecutors said knew what happened, but Betras said his testimony was riddled with inconsistencies.
“He was the worst witness and couldn’t be relied on,” Betras said.
Assistant Prosecutor Martin Desmond said the amount of time it took for the case to go trial hurt the state. He said the case was not even indicted until 2013, after several H Block members who were indicted with Hudson began cooperating with police.
Hudson was to stand trial in the case in December, but a mistrial was declared because after the original 12 jurors were selected, there were not enough jurors left in the pool to choose alternates. In the spring, the trial was postponed again because of a death in Betras’ family.
During the time it took the case to go to trial, one witness was killed and another refused to cooperate because the case was taking so long to go to court, Desmond said.
Hudson also faces charges in the December 2010 death of a man during a robbery at an Overland Avenue market.
Desmond told jurors during closing arguments Wednesday that they heard from a witness who said Hudson confessed the crime a few hours after Davis was slain, and also that Hudson changed his story to police several times. But Betras said none of the witnesses were telling the truth and could not be trusted.
Besides taking the marijuana from Davis, Desmond said $1,000 that Davis’ mother gave him earlier on the day he died to put toward a car was never found.