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Jurors to return to murder trial to try for verdict
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Jurors will return to Mahoning County Common Pleas Court this morning to try to arrive at a verdict in a murder trial.
Jurors informed Judge R. Scott Krichbaum about 2:50 p.m. Tuesday they were deadlocked in the trial of Paul Kerr.
The judge then sent them back to deliberate with what is known as a “Howard charge,” basically telling them to re-examine their positions on the case because the goal is to have the jury decide the case either way.
The judge released the jurors late Tuesday night. The trial began Monday morning.
Jurors got the case about 10:45 a.m. after attorneys completed closing arguments.
Prosecutors told jurors that Kerr killed Lenzie Morgan last fall because Morgan kicked Kerr out of his home.
Kerr’s attorney, Ross Smith, however, countered that it may have been Morgan’s wife who killed him, and that police never found the murder weapon — or any weapon.
Kerr, 48, is accused of killing Morgan, 49, inside Morgan’s home in the 2200 block of Shady Run Road because they were arguing over Morgan’s wife, Diva. Lenzie Morgan was shot Sept. 30 and died of his wounds Oct. 15. Kerr is charged with aggravated murder.
Assistant Prosecutor Natasha Frenchko told jurors Kerr was homeless and living out of plastic bags, but Lenzie Morgan agreed to take him in because they boxed together when they were younger.
On Sept. 30, however, Lenzie Morgan told Kerr he had to leave, and Kerr then shot him in the head, Frenchko told the jurors.
“He [Morgan] didn’t realize who he was letting into his home was a dangerous man who at this point had nothing to lose,” Frenchko said.
Frenchko said Kerr used a sawed-off .22-caliber rifle to shoot Lenzie Morgan, and a similar gun his mother owned was missing. Frenchko said bullet fragments collected from Lenzie Morgan’s head showed he was shot with a small-caliber rifle. He also said calls on Diva Morgan’s phone show that Kerr called his mother for a ride just minutes before Lenzie Morgan was shot.
Smith said police never found the gun that was used to kill Lenzie Morgan, and that gunshot-residue tests showed residue on Kerr’s shirt but also on Diva Morgan’s hands.
He also said that Diva Morgan’s son texted the victim just before he was shot that Kerr and Diva Morgan were in bed together and that Diva Morgan could not identify the person who shot her husband when first interviewed by police, then changed her story when interviewed by detectives.
“That’s the response of a person who doesn’t have her stories straight,” Smith said.