Jury convicts in gun and drug case

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A jury has convicted a 43-year-old Idora Avenue man of three counts of being a felon with a gun and two counts of cocaine possession.

The jury returned its verdict Wednesday against Shun Moreland after deliberating for about two hours and 15 minutes at the end of a two-day trial before Judge Shirley J. Christian of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Moreland was convicted of having a .45-caliber assault rifle and .40-caliber and 9 mm handguns following a 2012 aggravated-assault conviction.

The gun and cocaine offenses occurred Jan. 13 when police executed a search warrant.

When Moreland is sentenced at a later date, Kevin Trapp, an assistant county prosecutor, said he’ll recommend at least a three-year prison term for him, consecutive to an 18-month prison term Judge Christian imposed on him in June in another cocaine possession case, in which a jury convicted him.

“It’s important to get these individuals off the street because they’re killing people. They’re killing people with their drugs, and they could easily kill other people with their guns, especially an assault rifle,” Trapp said.