Witness lays out murder motive

March 4, 2017 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

A prosecution witness in the bench trial of two men accused of running an East Side drug ring laid out the motive for a double homicide one of them is accused of ordering.

The witness said Friday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court that Vincent Moorer, 30, ordered the September 2012 death of Ryan Slade, 20, because Slade slapped his girlfriend and Moorer wanted revenge.

Slade was killed as he was sitting in a car on Benford Lane on the East Side with Keara McCullough, 19, who was with him. McCullough was not involved in the feud, and prosecutors have described her as an innocent bystander.

Moorer and Melvin Johnson, 30, face charges of drug trafficking, engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, aggravated arson, felonious assault and other crimes for their roles in leading up the ring beginning in 2012. Their roles began after the previous leader, DeWaylyn Colvin, 33, was indicted on drug-trafficking charges after two homicides on the East Side in 2011 touched off an investigation.

Moorer also is charged with two counts of aggravated murder in the deaths of Slade and McCullough. Johnson is not facing any murder charges.

Colvin is to go on trial later on murder charges in the case involving the Slade and McCullough murders as well as two others. Two other men, Michael Austin, 23, and Hakeem Henderson, 25, were convicted in March 2016 of the four murders and are serving lengthy prison sentences.

Judge John Durkin is hearing the case without a jury.

Prosecutors have asked The Vindicator not to reveal the witness’s identity because of threats against him.

The witness said he kept guns and drugs for Moorer, and one day, Moorer asked the witness if he could retrieve his guns. A couple of days later, Moorer came to visit the witness and showed him local television news footage of the murders on an iPad.

The witness said he owed Moorer between $15,000 and $20,000, and showing him footage of the murders was Moorer’s way of reminding him that he’d better pay up if he did not want the same thing to happen to him.

“I felt like I better hurry up and get his money or I would be next,” the witness said.

The witness said Moorer said he had people to commit the crime for him but never said he did it himself.