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Warrants issued for Myrtle Avenue homicide
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Police have a suspect in custody and are searching for two more in the Saturday morning death of a West Side man.
Jason Heard, 19, was arrested by U.S. marshals early Wednesday and is in the Mahoning County jail on charges of aggravated murder and three counts of attempted murder in the death of Thomas Owens, 33, of Burbank Avenue.
Also wanted in Owens’ death is Leonard Savage, 21 and Jawonn Hymes, 25. They face the same charges as Heard.
Warrants were issued for the three early Wednesday.
Owens was killed as he sat in a parked car in the 500 block of West Myrtle Avenue about 12:20 a.m. Saturday. There were three other men in the car with him, but no one else was injured.
Police would not publicly comment on a motive Wednesday or say how their investigation led them to develop enough evidence to charge Heard, Savage and Hymes in the death of Owens.
Although they would not comment on why Owens was killed, police have said that his death led to a murder Monday, in which Tony Brown, 34, of West Delason Avenue, was killed about 8:50 p.m. as he stood outside the Southern Tavern, 1508 Glenwood Ave.
Police said Brown was one of four people inside the car where Owens was killed.
Police said the suspect in Brown’s death, Dennis Harris, 36, thought Brown had something to do with the death of Owens and confronted him outside the bar before firing several shots.
Five other people, including Harris, were wounded.
Detectives have said they do not think Brown had anything to do with the death of Owens.
Brown’s death Monday evening gave the city 21 homicides for 2015, two more than 2014’s total of 19.
A memorial of candles was left in the doorway of the bar for Owens, amid blood splatters on the sidewalk that have yet to be cleaned off.
Records show Heard is on three years probation from Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on charges of improper handling a firearm in a motor vehicle, which he was sentenced on in January; and possession of cocaine, for which he was sentenced in February.
In August 2011, Hymes was sentenced to nine months in prison on a fourth degree felony charge of possession of cocaine. In June 2013, he was indicted in federal court for being a felon in possession of a firearm and was sentenced to 30 months in prison in February 2014 with credit for time served.
He is also on federal probation.