Plea entered in Winona Avenue homicide case
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
One of 14 defendants charged in the death of a teen during a South Side brawl in August pleaded guilty Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Davar Porter, 20, entered his plea to a charge of aggravated riot, a fourth-degree felony. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Shawn Cortez, 17, on Aug. 17 on Winona Avenue.
Cortez was killed during a brawl between two families, the continuation of a fight that started the night before.
Thirteen other people face charges in the death of Cortez. Their trials are due to begin April 13 before Judge Lou A. D’Apolito, who also accepted Porter’s plea.
Two of those people, Dejon Jenkins, 19, and his brother David, 18, both face murder charges in Cortez’s death. The others were all charged with involuntary manslaughter and aggravated riot.
Police and prosecutors used cellphone video of the brawl to build their case.
Assistant Prosecutor Martin Desmond told Judge D’Apolito the two groups had tangled the night before and made arrangements to meet on the day Cortez was killed at a park at the corner of Winona and Glenwood avenues to fight.
Cortez was with one group of people in a home on Winona Avenue when another group, of which the Jenkins brothers were a part, came onto the street and taunted the people inside the house. Desmond said Porter also was inside the house with Cortez.
Desmond said the groups exchanged words before the people in the house began to chase the other group. Gunfire then drove them back, but there were people in both groups shooting, Desmond said. It was in this exchange that Cortez was killed.
Last week, Judge D’Apolito denied a motion to suppress by one of the defendants in the case. Several of the defendants and their attorneys met with Desmond within the last week but no resolutions of any of those cases came to fruition.