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Detective needs more info in '07 cold case
Editor’s note: Throughout 2015, Vindicator crime reporter Joe Gorman will be spotlighting different unsolved homicides in Youngstown.
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
It is not uncommon for city police Detective Sgt. Darryl Martin and his colleagues to hear from moms.
They either call to say their child is innocent or to prod investigators to find who hurt or killed their child.
The Dec. 27, 2007, unsolved homicide of Garrick Willis, 30, and John M. Jones Jr., 29, was no different because Martin had been hearing regularly from Jones’ mother, Gloria Jones.
He will not be able to give her any answers, however, if he can crack the case because Gloria Jones died in April.
Martin said he did not know she had died but was wondering if something was wrong with her because he had not heard from her in a long time.
“I just feel bad I can’t give her any explanation,” Martin said before finding out Gloria Jones had died. “There’s no such thing as closure.”
Both Willis and Jones were shot in the 400 block of Almyra Avenue about 9:35 p.m. Jones died on the sidewalk, and a few doors down from where he was found, Willis’ body was discovered in the trunk of his Cadillac, which was parked in the driveway of a vacant home.
The men were friends, and there were plans for the two to rent movies, but they somehow wound up on Almyra Avenue, where they were killed.
Martin said the theory at the time and one he still believes is that Willis was the intended target because he had been known to be involved in the drug trade in the past. He had $2,000 and some marijuana on him when he was found.
Martin said Jones was killed to eliminate witnesses and was probably running away when he was shot. Jones had no criminal record, and Martin said he does not think Jones was the person the people who shot Willis were looking for.
There are four suspects, but Martin said he needs more information to take the case to a grand jury. Of the four, one person was killed; one is in custody on unrelated charges; and another has pending charges in court, also on unrelated charges.
What is frustrating to Martin is he said there are people who know what happened and who are involved but they will not talk to police.
“Nobody wants to get involved,” Martin said. “People just don’t want to stick their necks out on these things.”
Martin said that is typical usually when someone who has a criminal background is killed, but in this case, he said Jones was not the target and in fact was probably in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“It never really bothered me,” Martin explained of witness involvement. “I understand. A lot of times it [witness involvement] depends on the victim. You get a lot of people wanting to cooperate. You get [tips] when it’s an innocent victim. You get all kinds of tips.”
Police do have the car that Willis was found in and several shell casings from the weapons used to kill both men, but that is not enough evidence without a witness, Martin said.
Police also have fingerprints and DNA evidence from people who were in the car before the homicides took place.
Jones’ father, John Jones Sr., initially agreed to talk with a reporter for this story but he changed his mind when a reporter came to his home.
Efforts to reach the Willis family were unsuccessful.
Sometimes in cold cases, people jailed for something else will get in contact with detectives to trade information for better treatment.
“It doesn’t happen too often, but it does happen,” Martin said. “There’s people out there that know [what happened].”
Anyone with information can call Martin at 330-742-8250.