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Colvin gets 17 years in drug ring case
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
One of the longest current pending criminal cases in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court came to a close Monday with guilty pleas to two counts of involuntary manslaughter and a single count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Judge John Durkin immediately sentenced 33-year-old Dwaylyn Colvin to 17 years in prison, a sentence agreed upon by prosecutors and defense attorneys for his role in ordering two killings in 2011 as part of an East Side drug ring prosecutors said he led.
Colvin’s plea closes the case against five of six defendants in the ring, four of whom were found guilty in previous trials and one of whom is serving life in prison with no parole.
Trial is pending against the sixth person, Nahdia Baker, but she was not indicted until 2015. Colvin was indicted in 2013.
Colvin apologized to the community for his actions and said he has no one to blame but himself.
“Life is about decisions,” Colvin said after taking a deep breath. “Obviously, some of the decisions I made were not good decisions.”
Colvin was accused of selling drugs and using two men, Michael Austin and Hakeem Henderson, as his enforcers and in ordering the Nov. 13, 2011, shooting death of Adam Christian, 23, and the death three days later of Raymond “Ramel” Hayes, 20.
Austin, who police said pulled the trigger, was sentenced to life with no parole after he was convicted of those murders earlier this year and two others committed in 2012 for the person who took over the ring after Colvin was in jail on drug charges. Henderson received a sentence of 36 years to life on complicity charges for being Austin’s driver.
Austin and Henderson also were convicted of the September 2011 deaths of Ryan Slade and Kierra McCullough, who were shot to death in a parked car on the East Side. Those killings came after Colvin was in jail and Vincent Moorer, 30, took over the drug ring for Colvin. Moorer was convicted of aggravated murder for ordering Slade to be killed; McCullough was with him when she was killed and was a bystander.
Convicted with Moorer on attempted murder and other charges was Melvin Johnson Jr. Both are serving lengthy prison sentences.
Sally Barnes, grandmother of Hayes, told Judge Durkin that Colvin may have thought he got a sweet deal and will not be doing much time, but she said Colvin will receive his ultimate punishment later.
“The Bible says you reap what you sow,” Barnes said.
Assistant Prosecutor Mike Yaccovone said prosecutors offered the deal because they were afraid an important witness who did not appear at the trial of Moorer and Johnson also would not appear at Colvin’s trial. Rather than risk an acquittal, they offered the deal.
The sentence will run concurrent to an 11-year sentence Colvin received in 2013 on drug charges, meaning he will serve six extra years in prison.