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Jury finds man guilty of East Side murder
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Jurors found a man guilty of all charges in the murder of a man on the East Side in 2013.
A sentencing date for Anthony Hopkins, 38, of West Dewey Avenue, has yet to be set.
Hopkins was convicted Friday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on charges of aggravated murder, tampering with evidence and intimidation of a victim or witness to a crime in the Sept. 28, 2013, death of Frank James Brown, 36.
Hopkins appeared calm as Judge Shirley J. Christian read the verdicts that jurors reached after deliberating most of the day. Jurors began deliberating at 9 a.m. and delivered their verdicts near 2:35 p.m., about 24 hours from the time they received the case Thursday.
The verdicts capped off a trial that began Tuesday.
Brown was found on Truesdale Avenue early in the morning Sept. 28, 2013, amid shards of glass from the window of a car. Police were able to trace that car back to a garage at a home on Hazelwood Avenue and charged the owners, Randall and Megan Miller, with Brown’s death.
Megan Miller ended up pleading guilty to a charge of tampering with evidence, and her husband, Randall Miller, pleaded guilty Oct. 1, 2014, to a charge of involuntary manslaughter in Brown’s death. The day after his plea was accepted, a grand jury indicted Hopkins.
Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa thanked jurors for their time but had no other comment.
Randall Miller was the main prosecution witness against Hopkins, but defense attorney David Betras tried to convince jurors Miller was lying about Hopkins to cover up his own involvement in Brown’s death.
Afterward, Betras said he was “devastated” for his client.
Prosecutors never offered a motive for the death of Brown, Betras said, and he told jurors in closing arguments authorities were unsure why he was killed.