Three charged in stabbing death

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A Mahoning County grand jury indicted three people Thursday on charges of murder, felonious assault and tampering with evidence in the Aug. 10 stabbing death of a 53-year-old Palmer Avenue man.

Felicia Ward, 24, of Brentwood Avenue; Wallace Lewis, 27, of Steel Street; and Calvin Sidney Shelton, 27, of Idora Avenue, are charged in the death of Howard Ramey, whose decomposing body was found by police in his basement fruit cellar Aug. 12.

Police said Ramey was killed with a knife or other cutting instrument.

The evidence tampering charge pertains to concealment or removal of furniture on the day of the homicide to impair its value or availability as evidence in an investigation.

In the same indictment, Ward was additionally charged with obstructing justice for purportedly conveying false information Aug. 20 to hinder a felony prosecution.

All three defendants face repeat violent offender specifications based on felony convictions prior to this indictment.

The specifications are based on Ward’s Oct. 4 burglary conviction; Lewis’ Feb. 4, 2010, felonious assault conviction; and Shelton’s Nov. 30, 2010, aggravated robbery and kidnapping conviction – all in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Police entered through the unlocked door of the home in the 700 block of Palmer Avenue on the city’s South Side after Ramey’s daughter reported she had not seen or heard from him for three days.

Police noticed high grass in the yard, and Ramey’s daughter said her father mowed his grass almost every other day.