Warren Township biker-shootings trial pushed back again because of witness issues

Staff report

WARREN

The trial scheduled to begin Monday for the shooting deaths of two Leavittsburg motorcycle-club members and wounding of two others has been delayed a second time by issues with witnesses.

The trial of David Bailes Jr. and Charles Dellapenna III was supposed to begin with jury selection in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, but it will not take place this week, court officials said.

The trial also was set to begin last week but was pushed back one week by issues with two witnesses who were going to be unavailable. One of those witnesses, a ballistics expert with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, was not available again this week.

A hearing is set for 1:30 today to discuss a new trial date.

Bailes, 45, and Dellapenna III, 47, both of Warren, are to go on trial in the shooting deaths of Jason Moore, 41, of Bristolville, and Robert Marto, 54, of Cortland, and the wounding of Andrew Claypool, 50, of Girard, and Walter Hughes, 41, of Warren.

The shootings occurred at Shorty’s Place tavern on Highland Avenue in Warren Township in a June 18, 2016, confrontation involving the Forever Two Wheelz and Brothers Regime motorcycle clubs.

Bailes and Dellapenna were members of Forever Two Wheelz, and the others were members of the Brothers Regime.

Bailes and Dellapenna could both get life prison sentences if convicted of some of the charges they face – two counts of aggravated murder and two counts of felonious assault.