Client wants attorney to stay in murder case
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
After eight years, Tony Meranto thought perhaps his client, Paul Brown, would want a new attorney in his 2009 murder case.
In fact, Meranto even filed a motion in 2015 to withdraw as counsel because he thought after so many years a new set of eyes was needed on the case.
But Wednesday before Judge Maureen Sweeney, Brown, 39, said in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court he did not want Meranto to withdraw as his counsel, so Meranto agreed to stay on.
It took so long to have a hearing because in 2015 Meranto appealed Brown’s case to the 7th District Court of Appeals, saying that because of two mistrials in the case the charge should be dropped and Brown should be freed.
The appeals court, however, ruled against Meranto’s argument.
Brown is accused of killing Ashten Jackson, 17, sometime around May 24, 2009. Prosecutors say the two were participating in a robbery planned by a third man. Jackson’s body was found May 30, 2009, in a field on the East Side near where the robbery was to take place.
In 2012, a mistrial was declared because of a police report and a video that defense counsel did not have. In 2013, the murder charge was briefly dismissed when Meranto claimed police tampered with Brown’s cellphone. A judge reinstated the charge, however, because testimony at a hearing showed there was no tampering.
In June 2015, the case was declared a mistrial because of a video prosecutors wanted to play that Meranto said he had never seen before the trial.
When Judge Sweeney asked if Brown understood what was going on, he replied he did not want another attorney.
“I would rather keep him [Meranto],” Brown said.
Judge Sweeney said she wanted to set a trial date as soon as possible.
Brown served 71 months in federal prison beginning in 2009 after he was arrested on a weapons charge related to the investigation into Jackson’s death. He is now being held on $500,000 bond in the murder case.