43
Opening statements begin in trial for '12 robbery
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Attorneys said in opening statements Monday in the trial of a man accused of robbing a South Side Family Dollar store in 2012 that guns will be key in the case.
Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa told jurors in the Mahoning County Common Pleas courtroom of Judge Shirley Christian that a gun found in a car stopped shortly after the Nov. 28, 2012, robbery belonged to the defendant, James Woods, 20, of Palmer Avenue, and that jurors can see the gun in surveillance video of the robbery.
Defense attorney James Gentile said, however, that jurors will not be able to tell from the video if the gun found with Woods was wielded by one of two masked men caught on video robbing the store.
Jury selection took up most of the morning before Judge Christian and jurors heard opening statements in the late afternoon. Woods is charged with aggravated robbery and carrying a concealed weapon.
He is accused of being one of two men who held up a Family Dollar store on Market Street. Cantalamessa said that shortly after the robbery, a police officer pulled over a car a short distance away that had five people inside. After backup arrived, officers searched the car and found three weapons, one with Woods, she said.
His gun and a black mask found in the car were sent to the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation for DNA testing, Cantalamessa said. There was too much mixed DNA on the gun to see whose it was, but Woods’ DNA was found on the mask, Cantalamessa said.
Cantalamessa also said that jurors can find Woods complicit of aggravated robbery even if he did not go into the store. She said under the law, he can be found guilty if he was there unless his actions are “innocent,” Cantalamessa said. She said the fact he was picked up with a gun is proof enough his intentions were not benign.
“He brought his own gun, and it was loaded,” Cantalamessa said.
Gentile said that the dimensions of the robbers and their clothing will be important in the case. He said Woods does not match the physical dimensions of the two in the video, and he was wearing red, not black clothing, when the car he was in was stopped by police. The video shows both robbers were dressed in all black.
Woods also originally was charged with engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, but he is not facing that charge now. There was no mention in the court file of whether the charge was dropped.