Family wants answers in homicide

By Joe Gorman

jgorman@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Leroy Williams’ mother says whoever invaded his home and killed him has to pay.

Cassondra Montgomery said burying her son after he was killed in his South Side home in December is bad enough, but not knowing who did it makes it worse.

“To have no closure is twice as devastating,” Montgomery said.

Williams was killed about 2:45 a.m. Dec. 13, 2014, inside his 72 Brooklyn Ave. home. Police said two people broke inside and shot him several times. Williams had four children, two with the woman he was living with, and the children were upstairs at the time of the crime, reports said.

Detective Sgt. Dave Sweeney, lead investigator on the case, said it is frustrating because he has made good progress on the case but he cannot get enough evidence to leap the final hurdle and make an arrest.

Williams’ family is from Mansfield, and he moved to Youngstown a couple of years ago because of a job he had at a trucking company, Montgomery said. She said her son was a long-haul trucker.

Sweeney said police don’t think anything was taken when the two people broke into the home – something that also upsets Montgomery.

“He didn’t give anybody a reason to do that to him,” Montgomery said.

Lauren Montgomery, Williams’ sister, said her brother was a “good guy” who loved to be outdoors.

“He loved fishing,” Lauren Montgomery said. “That was his release.”

She also pleaded for help.

“I don’t want his death to be in vain,” Lauren Montgomery said.

Cassondra Montgomery said a person’s home should be their sanctuary.

“A man’s home is a sanctuary, and it was violated the night my son was killed,” she said.

Anyone with information can call the detective bureau at 330-747-8911 and ask for Sweeney.