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Trial to begin in April ‘16 murder
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Opening statements will begin today in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for a man accused of murder just 48 hours after he was released from prison.
Jury selection was completed Monday for Jermaine Bunn, 40, who is on trial before Judge John Durkin on charges of aggravated murder, felonious assault and being a felon in possession of a firearm for the April 3, 2016, shooting death of 30-year-old Michael Pete during a party at a home on East Evergreen Avenue on the South Side.
Bunn is acting as his own attorney on the case.
Bunn had been released from prison just 48 hours before he is accused of shooting Pete. Bunn was wounded in the face during the same shooting in an exchange of gunfire, police said.
Court records show Bunn was sentenced in common pleas court to seven years in prison in December 2009 after pleading guilty to charges of felonious assault and kidnapping. He was granted credit at the time for 227 days served, court records showed. He asked for an early release in prison, but Judge Maureen A. Sweeney denied his request in April 2015.
Trial in the case was supposed to begin in January but was continued after Bunn asked to represent himself. He is the second defendant in a murder case this year to act as his own attorney before Judge Durkin.
Earlier this year, David Hackett represented himself on charges of aggravated murder for the 2013 stabbing death of a woman. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.