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Man pleads guilty in 2015 killing
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A man charged with the murder of a 16-year-old last September pleaded guilty Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to a reduced charge of involuntary manslaughter.
Prosecutors are recommending a sentence of 13 years in prison for Sir Wolfgang Green, 22, who also pleaded guilty before Judge John Durkin to a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Green was charged in the death of Devon Bailey, who was shot to death about 8:40 p.m. Sept. 16, 2015, inside a house in the 500 block of Cohasset Drive.
Sentencing will be next week.
Green had been charged with murder, but the charge was reduced to involuntary manslaughter in exchange for his plea. His attorney, Ross Smith, said he will ask for a sentence of less than 13 years when his client is sentenced.
Judge Durkin told Green because he accepted responsibility for his crime, he will not exceed the 13 years prosecutors are asking for when it is time for sentencing.
Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa told the judge prosecutors decided to reduce the charge because of the circumstances of the crime.
She said Green, the victim and several other friends were in a room at the home and were handling a gun. Cantalamessa said Green was holding the gun when it went off and killed Bailey.
She said there was no fighting or arguing before Bailey was killed, and it appeared that Green was trying to show Bailey how the gun worked before it went off.
She decided to ask for a sentence of 13 years because Green ran away from the crime scene with the gun that was used in Bailey’s death, and later when police tried to arrest him on a warrant, he jumped out of the second-story window of a home to try and evade capture.
Cantalamessa also said she was concerned that Green, who is barred because of several felony convictions from having a gun, still had one.
“This defendant shouldn’t have had a gun in the first place,” Cantalamessa said.
Court records show Green has a criminal record dating back to when he was a juvenile.
In 2013, he received a year in prison after he violated probation in common pleas court on charges of breaking and entering and possession of cocaine for which he earlier had pleaded guilty and had been sentenced to probation.
In January 2014, Green was sentenced to 18 months in prison, also in common pleas court, on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm and was given credit for 100 days served in the county jail while awaiting the outcome of his case.
He also was in juvenile court several times back to when he was 12, according to records there.
In 2006, he was charged with breaking and entering; a criminal-trespassing charge in 2007; and a charge of making false alarms in 2008.
In 2011, he was charged with receiving stolen property, and also faced two counts of receiving stolen property, breaking and entering, theft and vandalism.