Cops: Fire may be linked to year’s first homicide

January 7, 2016 at 12:05a.m.

Autopsy reveals victim died from gunshot wounds to the back

YOUNGSTOWN

Police say a fire at a South Side home Tuesday evening may be connected to the city’s first homicide of the year earlier in the day.

Richard Macklin, 22, of East Philadelphia Avenue, was found about 5:45 p.m. Tuesday after a landlord and family members found a door kicked in to the home in the 200 block of East Philadelphia Avenue where he was staying.

The landlord found Macklin dead in an upstairs bedroom as police were on their way to the home.

Macklin’s death is the city’s first homicide of 2016.

A news release from the Mahoning County Coroner’s Office said an autopsy was done on Macklin on Wednesday and determined that Macklin died from several gunshot wounds to the back.

Lt. Doug Bobovnyik of the detective bureau said family members had been concerned about Macklin because they had not seen him for several hours before he was found. Bobovnyik said Macklin had been shot to death but investigators do not believe he had been dead a long time before he was found.

A few hours later, about 9 p.m., firefighters were called to a 203 E. Chalmers Ave. home where there was a large fire on the front porch. Reports said there also was a strong odor of an accelerant as well, and the owner was at the police station for what fire reports termed “another matter.” Patrol officers were called to the home to help firefighters because a large crowd was there and was interfering with firefighting efforts.

Damage to the home is listed at $6,000. There were no injuries. The fire department’s Fire Investigation Unit is working on finding a cause for the fire.

Bobovnyik said the fire may be connected to Macklin’s death because a person of interest in the case lives there. He would not say, however, how police know that.

The cause of the fire is listed as under investigation.

Court records show Macklin was sentenced to six months in prison in November 2013 on charges of possession of cocaine and attempted tampering with evidence. Also around the same time, he was given a two-year prison sentence for violating a sentence of probation he received for a 2012 robbery, according to court records.

In 2015, Youngstown recorded 22 homicides, but that number is expected to be adjusted to 23 because of the death of a baby Dec. 29 who died of injuries suffered Dec. 15. An autopsy has not yet been completed in that case. The city did not record its first homicide in 2015 until Jan. 21.