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Sentences handed down in drug ring case
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Two men convicted after a weeklong bench trial were adamant just before they were sentenced Monday that they are innocent.
Both Melvin Johnson, 32, and Vincent Moorer, 30, filed motions with Judge John Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court asking to overturn their guilty verdicts.
Judge Durkin, however, overruled their motions and handed down two sentences of life for Moorer, one with no parole and one with parole eligibility after 15 years, plus another 70 years tacked on; and 28 years to Johnson; on counts of attempted murder, being a felon in possession of a firearm and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.
Moorer was sentenced to life without parole for ordering the September 2012 murder of Ryan Slade, 20 and 15 years to life in prison for the murder of Kierra McCullough, 19, who was killed with Slade as they sat in a car on Benford Lane on the East Side.
Moorer also received sentences on convictions of attempted murder, discharging a firearm into a habitation and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.
The two were found guilty March 13 by Judge Durkin after a weeklong trial without a jury.
Prosecutors said the two took over the operations of the drug ring after a pair of homicides days apart in November 2011 on the East Side focused police attention on the former leader, DeWaylyn Convin. Colvin will be tried at a later date, as will a woman who was facing most of the same charges Moorer and Johnson were facing.
Two men were convicted of the murders of Slade and McCullough as well as two other murders and are serving lengthy prison sentences.
Families of the murder victims were in the courtroom but did not speak. Moorer said he felt sorry for them but would not apologize because he said he was innocent.
Judge Durkin said not only did he believe the witness, but that Moorer and Johnson’s actions were lethal because they combined not only drug dealing but the willingness to use violence any time for even the slightest reason.
“It’s bad enough when individuals or organizations put drugs into our community, but this organization took it to another level when people with no respect for human life were killing witnesses, were killing people who showed even the slightest disrespect,” Judge Durkin said.