43
Two more sentenced in Winona homicide
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
For Judge Lou A. D’Apolito, it’s very simple.
A gun in the hands of someone who shouldn’t have one always ends badly.
That’s what he said Tuesday as he sentenced two people in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for their roles in the death of 17-year-old Shawn Cortez last August during a fight on Winona Drive.
The judge has said the same thing throughout the course of the case, which has stretched over a year and seen 15 people charged. He said it again Tuesday when he sentenced Dejon Jenkins, 19, and Darnell Wilkerson, 18, to five and 41/2 years in prison, respectively – and he is expected to say the same today when he sentences Jenkins’ brother, David, who authorities say fired the shot that killed Cortez.
“Guns in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them kill people,” Judge D’Apolito said while sentencing Dejon Jenkins.
Cortez died after two groups of people met to fight on Winona Drive on Aug. 17, 2014. Assistant Prosecutor Martin Desmond said the fight that day was a continuation of a fight at a party the night before, when the Jenkins brothers fought with Cortez over a girl.
Desmond said a sentence of five to seven years was recommended for Dejon Jenkins. Desmond said he leaned heavily toward the higher end for Dejon Jenkins because he and his brother were responsible for setting up the fight, then bragging about it on social media, then going to a home Cortez was in and egging him on when no one showed up to face them at a nearby park.
“It starts with them,” Desmond said of the Jenkins brothers. “They wanted to have this fight, but when the group they wanted to fight said, ‘We don’t want to go to the park,’ they went to the house.”
The entire time Desmond was speaking, Jenkins’ mother was shaking her head. She tried to speak to the judge, but she was not allowed because Ohio law states that at a sentencing hearing, only the defendant or representatives of the victim’s family can speak.
After her son’s hearing, she did shake hands with Cortez’s father and told she was sorry and was praying for him. The father was at court but did not speak.
Tom Zena, Dejon Jenkins’ lawyer, said his client was walking away when the fight went awry as someone in the home where Cortez was mocked the other group for leaving. He also said Dejon Jenkins never had a gun and did not give his brother a gun.
Dejon Jenkins looked at Cortez’s father and apologized.
“The whole situation was foolish, and it doesn’t make sense to me that Shawn had to lose his life that day,” Dejon Jenkins said.
Wilkerson’s attorney, David Engler, said his client was a good student at East High School before he was charged in the case. Wilkerson said he was sorry but had no idea what to say.
“I’m at a loss for words,” Wilkerson said.
Judge D’Apolito urged both to learn from the experience and make the most of their life because they are so young. He also said while sentencing Wilkerson that adults who were there needed to stop the fight and that guns in situations like that means there will be bloodshed.
“Nobody seems to understand that the ultimate consequence of someone having a gun is that someone is going to die,” Judge D’Apolito said.