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Bench trial starts in East Side drug ring case
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Two men who prosecutors say ran an East Side drug ring made a habit of inflicting violence on anyone who crossed them, prosecutors said Thursday.
A bench trial for Melvin Johnson, 32, and Vincent Moorer, 30, started in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
In his opening statement before Judge John Durkin, assistant Prosecutor Martin Desmond detailed some of the crimes the two are accused of, including shooting at a witness to a crime, setting a car on fire with the help of a third person then riddling a car with an assault rifle and hitting two houses with bullets in the process.
“When you cross this organization, you face dire consequences,” Desmond said.
Moorer and Johnson both face charges of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, attempted murder, aggravated arson, felonious assault, drug trafficking and more. Moorer also faces two counts of aggravated murder.
Desmond said Moorer and Johnson took over a drug organization headed by DeWaylyn Colvin, 33, after a pair of homicides in 2011 on Youngstown’s East Side within three days of each other spurred law enforcement to look at how the two were connected. The conclusion was that both murders were ordered by Colvin trying to maintain control over a drug ring he was running on the East Side. When the resulting investigation led to Colvin’s indictment and conviction, Moorer and Johnson took over, Desmond said.
Colvin, who already is serving a prison sentence on drug charges, will be tried later for his role in running the organization and the murders that prosecutors say were committed for the organization. Two men, Michael Austin, 23, and Hakeem Henderson, 25, were convicted of those murders in March 2016, and are serving lengthy prison sentences. Another defendant, Nahdia Baker, 30, is expected to go on trial after Moorer and Johnson’s trial is completed.
Desmond said in his opening statement that Baker had a pivotal role in one of the crimes the two are accused of committing. Desmond said Baker lost drugs and money and blamed the loss on another man. Baker then drove to the home of the girlfriend of that person and set her car on fire. The fire then spread to the house, Desmond said.
When the woman’s boyfriend tried to come to her aid, Baker drove Johnson to his house and Johnson then fired several rounds at him from an assault rifle, hitting the car and damaging two other houses, Desmond said.
Desmond also said that Moorer ordered the murder of Ryan Slade, 20, who was shot and killed in September 2012 with Keara McCullough, 19, as they sat in a car on Benford Lane. Desmond said Slade slapped Moorer’s girlfriend, so Moorer ordered him to be killed and gave a gun to Austin and Henderson. Both were convicted of those murders last March as well. McCullough, prosecutors said, was in the wrong place at the wrong time and had nothing to do with any illegal activity.
One of Moorer’s attorneys, Eric Jones, told the judge that while prosecutors may claim to have mounds of evidence, they do not have anything that would link his client to any of the crimes.