Testimony begins in attempted murder trial

By Joe Gorman

jgorman@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Prosecutors said Tuesday that the reason a man took two bullets in the brain in March 2014 was because another man was upset over a robbery of 60 grams of heroin the day before, where the victim was present.

Dashonti Baker, 23, faces charges of attempted murder and felonious assault in the March 15, 2014, shooting of Jaquez Brown, who was one of three people inside an SUV at a gas station at South and East Dewey avenues. He was shot twice in the head and once in the arm but survived.

A jury was selected and seated in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court before Judge John Durkin on Monday, and opening statements began Tuesday.

Assistant Prosecutor Meghan Brundege told jurors that the shooting stemmed from a robbery the day before, when Brown was with two people who took a cellphone, wallet and 60 grams of heroin from Baker. Brundege said later the day of the robbery, Baker and Brown met in the parking lot of a Boardman fast-food restaurant, where Brown gave Baker back his wallet and cellphone and Baker thought things were squared.

“Jaquez leaves the parking lot thinking everything is solved,” Brundege said.

However, the next day, the SUV Brown was in stalled in front of the gas station. A city police officer helped Brown and the other two inside push it into the parking lot, and shortly after Baker was driving on East Dewey Avenue when he spotted the SUV and fired several shots at it.

Brown was the only person hit and was in a coma for eight days.

Defense attorney Lou DeFabio told jurors that prosecutors have no physical evidence to prove his client was ever around the gas station, let alone that he ever fired a gun. He also said the sole witness who can place his client at the scene of the shooting is Brown, the victim, and he said Brown’s statements to police were widely inconsistent.

DeFabio also said there is no way the shooting could have happened the way that Brown told police.

“The physical evidence will show you this did not happen the way the state says it did,” DeFabio said.