43
Body found on East Side early Thursday identified
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Tattoos and other details led to the identification of a man found dead and partially burned on the East Side early Thursday.
The Mahoning County Coroner’s office identified Trey Chatman, 21, of West LaClede Avenue, as the person found about 1:15 a.m. at Liberty Road and Wardle Avenue. Police are investigating his death as the city’s 22nd homicide of 2015.
Lt. Douglas Bobovnyik of the Detective Bureau said the Cuyahoga County Coroner’s Office would handle Chatman’s autopsy Friday because Forensic Pathologist Dr. Joseph Ohr was off.
Chatman’s death is the sixth this month that police are investigating as a homicide and the third in which the victim was burned. On Nov. 6, a woman who was killed was found partially burned inside her Cleveland Street home and a man was found Nov. 12 inside a burning car on Otis Street.
Bobovnyik said the crimes aren’t connected, and he added the only similarity is that the people involved wanted to cover up evidence.
An arrest has been made in the Cleveland Street case. Police are still trying to confirm the identity of the man found on Otis Street.
Court records show Chatman had charges of aggravated robbery, tampering with evidence and being a felon in possession of a firearm dropped Aug. 25 in Mahoning County Area Court in Boardman after witnesses failed to show up. An arrest warrant was later issued from that court on a charge of public indecency. That case is still pending.
In 2012, Chatman was given two years’ probation in common pleas court on a burglary charge, but his probation was terminated because he failed to pay over $1,000 in restitution to the victim.
The coroner’s office said the tattoos and details supplied by family members led them to confirm that the body found was Chatman’s.
Also Friday, Jawonn Hymes, 25, was arraigned in municipal court on one count of aggravated murder and three counts of attempted aggravated murder. Judge Robert Milich set bond at $1 million. Hymes was arrested Wednesday at a home in Farrell, Pa., by U.S. marshals. He is charged in the Nov. 14 killing of Thomas Owens, 33, of Burbank Avenue, who was shot early Nov. 14 while sitting in a parked car with three other people in the 500 block of West Myrtle Avenue.
Another suspect is in custody in Owens’ death. Police are searching for a third, Leonard Savage, 21.