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Prosecution to rest in Myrtle Avenue murder case
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Prosecutors today are expected to rest their case in the aggravated murder case of Leonard Savage.
Savage, 22, is on trial before Judge Lou D’Apolito in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for the Nov. 14, 2015, murder of Thomas Owens, 33, of Burbank Avenue, who was shot and killed as he sat in a parked car on West Myrtle Avenue.
Prosecutors finished presenting witnesses Tuesday, as Detective Sgt. Michael Lambert, the lead investigator, testified as did Dr. Joseph Ohr, a forensic pathologist with the Mahoning County Coroner’s Office.
Lambert spent most of the day talking jurors through a series of videos from near the crime scene that police obtained. The videos show Savage and co-defendants Jawon Himes, 26, and Jason Heard. 20, at a bar near the crime scene and getting into vehicles witnesses said they were known to drive that drove toward the crime scene.
Himes and Heard will go on trial at a later date.
Prosecutors said Thomas Owens was killed because Savage blamed him for the death of his uncle, Richard Owens, no relation, in 2004. Thomas Owens pleaded guilty to negligent homicide in that case. Police said Richard Owens was killed accidentally when a gun the two were handling went off.
Dr. Ohr testified about the gunshot wound to the back of the head that killed Thomas Owens.
Jury selection began Nov. 15 and testimony began Nov. 16 with a break on Friday because court was not in session.
Judge D’Apolito told jurors that if the case is not finished today, he will allow them to have Thanksgiving and the day after the holiday off. They would return for the resumption of the trial on Monday, Judge D’Apolito said.