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Murder case bound over to grand jury
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A detective testified in a preliminary hearing in municipal court for two suspects in a June 23 shooting death on the West Side that investigators are testing a 9 mm handgun found Friday at Mill Creek Park to see if it could be the murder weapon.
Detective Sgt. Mike Lambert also said at Monday’s hearing two guns were found in the SUV containing the body of Rae’venna Faircloth-Thomas, who was found shot to death in the driver’s seat June 23 on Oneta Street.
Lambert said there was a .40-caliber handgun at her feet on the floor of the SUV, and a 9 mm handgun also was found. The gun found in Mill Creek Park, also a 9 mm, was found Friday at Pioneer Pavillion by a man who called Mill Creek MetroParks Police. Lambert said that gun is being tested to see if it is the weapon used in Faircloth-Thomas’ death.
Visiting Judge David Fuhry sent the cases of Dashonti Baker, 24, and Barraya Hickson, also 24, both of Millet Avenue, to a Mahoning County grand jury after the more than two-hour hearing. Judge Fuhry reduced the bond for Hickson, charged with complicity to aggravated murder, from $10 million to $1 million, but he continued Baker’s $10 million bond. They remain in the county jail.
They were arrested a couple of hours after the shooting after police took them into custody at the Millet Avenue home they share. A Community Police Unit officer was familiar with the car witnesses said was used in the shooting, which was a silver Chevrolet Impala that had a curtain over the back passenger-side window.
Two neighbors testified they heard gunfire, then looked outside and saw a man run from the SUV. One of the neighbors said he saw the man in the SUV wipe off the armrest and door handle with a cloth before he ran away. The other said she saw a man walk from the SUV to a silver car, which pulled into a driveway. The man got in the car and it drove away.
Under cross-examination, the witnesses admitted they did not see the man’s face, never saw the driver of the car and never saw a gun.
Lambert testified that when he was called to Millet Avenue after the car was found, Baker and Hickson were detained and taken to the detective bureau for questioning. Hickson invoked her right to have a lawyer and refused to answer any questions, but Baker told Lambert he had not fired a gun in several years. A gunshot residue test was done on Baker and came back positive, however, Lambert said.
In the SUV, a quit-claim deed from Faircloth-Thomas to Baker transferring a piece of property to him was found. Lambert said police think that property and a monetary dispute between Baker and the victim’s boyfriend were the motive for the shooting.
Lambert also found video from a nearby business that shows the car suspected of being used in the homicide traveling on Steel Street toward Oneta three or four minutes before 911 was called. Lambert testified Baker told him earlier the car had not moved at all before police showed up.
Lambert also testified that five 9 mm shell casings were found in the front of the SUV. He said those casings were compared with a computer data base of casings and guns used in previous shootings. He said the casings matched that of a gun used in a shooting in 2009 and another from earlier this year, both in Youngstown.