Verdicts handed down in bench trial

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Two men who had a week-long bench trial in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for their roles in heading up an East Side drug ring were found guilty Monday.

Melvin Johnson, 32, was found not guilty on 13 of 16 charges by Judge John Durkin, but he was convicted of one count of attempted murder, felonious assault and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.

Co-defendant Vincent Moorer, 30, was found guilty of attempted murder, felonious assault, two counts of improper discharge of a firearm at or into a habitation, engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and aggravated murder in the September 2012 death of 20-year-old Ryan Slade; and for murder in the death of 19-year-old Kiera McCullough, who was shot and killed with Slade as they sat in a car on Benford Lane on the East Side.

Sentencing will take place at a later date. Both men already are serving federal prison sentences on drug charges.

A third defendant, Nahdia Baker, 30, faces similar charges and also will be tried at a later date.

The two men convicted of killing McCullough and Slade were tried and convicted in March 2016 and are serving lengthy prison sentences.

Prosecutors said Moorer and Johnson took over a drug ring headed by DeWaylyn Colvin, 34, after police focused on him after two homicides within three days in November of 2011.

Colvin was convicted on drug charges in a separate case but is awaiting trial for his role in the drug ring, as well as two other murders.

Prosecutors said Slade was killed because he was rude to Moorer’s girlfriend and McCullough happened to be with him when he was shot. The trial started March 2 and ended Thursday.