43
Man pleads to murder charge in '13 killing
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A last-minute plea to a charge of murder averted jury selection in a trial Wednesday.
Larry Blue, 34, pleaded guilty to the charge plus a firearm specification in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Sentencing is set for 11 a.m. today before Judge John Durkin. By law, Blue must receive a sentence of 15 years to life on the murder charge and three years for the firearm specification for a total sentence of 18 years.
Blue pleaded guilty to the Feb. 2, 2013, shooting death of David Stokes, 53, of Columbiana County and the wounding of Matthew Sharp, no age given, at the Rockford Village Housing Project.
Jurors had reported to the courthouse for selection in his trial that was to begin Wednesday afternoon, but Blue entered his plea Wednesday morning.
Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa said after the hearing that Stokes was killed and Sharp wounded during a drug deal. She said an accomplice, Khadijah Payden-Briggs, 21, met Stokes, Sharp and a third man in the car with them as the three were there to buy drugs.
She said Blue then came into view with two guns and demanded the three hand over their money. When they refused, he fired a shot that missed Sharp and another, missing the other man. He then fired several shots at Stokes, who was hit by three bullets.
Cantalamessa said it was Stokes who had the money, and he had at least $1,350. She said she was not sure if Stokes was buying the drugs for himself or to sell because of the large amount of cash he was carrying, and he died before he could tell anyone what he was going to do with the drugs.
Payden-Briggs pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in May 2013 and was sentenced by Judge Durkin to four years in prison.
In exchange for his plea, prosecutors agreed to amend the charge of aggravated murder to murder. Johnson also will receive sentences for counts of aggravated robbery and felonious assault, but those sentences will run concurrent to the 18 years to life sentence he will receive for murder.