Man gets 20 years in prison in slaying outside bar

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A man who pleaded guilty to a fatal February shooting outside a South Side bar has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Earl Price, 42, drew the sentence Tuesday from Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Price had pleaded guilty in July on the day jury selection for his trial was to begin, to charges of voluntary manslaughter and being a felon in possession of a firearm with firearm specifications and repeat-violent-offender specifications.

Price was charged in the death of DeJuan Thomas, 33, who was fatally shot Feb. 7 outside the Partners Jazz and Blues Lounge on Oak Hill Avenue after the two argued inside.

Thomas was shot about 1 a.m., and he later died from his wounds in St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.

“This particular event is just an unfortunate situation that I really tried to avoid,” Price told the judge, adding that Thomas was armed and had threatened to kill him.

At the time he was killed, Thomas was free on bond awaiting trial in a homicide. He was one of two men charged in the death of Kristopher Stuart, 26, inside Stuart’s Elm Street home April 29, 2013.

The repeat-violent-offender specification is for a 1992 incident in which Price was convicted of aggravated robbery and discharging a firearm into a habitation.

Police said no one at the bar called 911 when Thomas was shot.

Several days after Thomas’ death, the city closed the bar because of several building-code violations.

Someone drove Thomas to the hospital, which is where police were called. The car used to take him to the hospital had a large amount of blood inside and a shattered rear window, according to the police report.

Thomas had a gunshot wound to the upper ribs. Police were able to recover a bullet from his body.

Price will be on probation for five years after prison.