HAMAD TRIAL | Jurors will hear from lead detective on Thursday

4:40 p.m.

WARREN

The Nasser Hamad aggravated murder trial has adjourned for the day after jurors watched a videotaped interview in which Hamad told two detectives at the Howland Police Department what happened the day of the shootings.

After playing the video, attorneys in the case continued to question Capt. Tony Villanueva of the Trumbull County Sheriff's Office, who was a Howland detective at the time of the killings at Hamad's house on state Route 46 that caused him to be charged.

Defense attorney Robert Dixon asked Villaneuva several questions about whether Villanueva had followed up on some of the issues Hamad raised in the interview about criminal offenses having been committed against him. Hamad talked about numerous incidents of harassment he said his girlfriend's family had done to him over the last six months.

Villanueva said he left the Howland Police Department in May and was no longer involved in the investigation.

The lead detective after Villanueva left the department, Jeff Edmundson, took the witness stand at the end of the day and will return to the stand Thursday when the trial resumes.

3 p.m.

WARREN

Jurors have been watching a videotaped interview for about an hour of Nasser Hamad being interviewed at the Howland Police Department the day of the shootings at his house on state Route 46 in Howland.

In it Hamad talked about the various conflicts he had been having over the past six months with the family of his girlfriend, Tracy Hendrickson, talking about the pictures they posted of themselves holding guns and knives, the things they had thrown in his yard.

He called them "white trash." He explained how the fight began with a woman he didn't know approaching him and a young man he didn't know being with her and three other young men getting out of the van to join the young man in attacking him.

Hamad, 48, then talked about getting his gun and approaching the van. He said a couple of the males were still outside of the van. He repeatedly said he didn't remember many details but when he got close to the van, he repeatedly heard someone inside say "Get the gun" and saw one male in the back of the van with a knife.

"I told her not to move," he said of the woman driving the van. People in the van were still swearing at him, he said. Prosecutors say there are still another 15 minutes of the tape left to view.

Hamad is on trial on two counts of aggravated murder and several counts of attempted murder.

12:10 p.m.

WARREN

The Nasser Hamad aggravated murder trial is breaking for lunch after about two hours of testimony from a Trumbull County detective regarding the bullets and shell casings recovered from the shooting scene, and testimony from a crime scene investigator from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal investigation.

Another detective will testify after lunch, and jurors will hear a recording of statements Hamad gave to police.

Detective Chris Bordonaro of the Lordstown Police Department testified this morning to the bullets and 18 shell casings found at the crime scene, including two casings found just off the front porch of Hamad's house and a bullet just off of Hamad's property on state Route 46.

10:55 a.m.

WARREN

Though April Trent-Vokes had been shot in the head and lost consciousness much of the time after that, she remembered a few things that happened after that first shot, she testified this morning in the Nasser Hamad aggravated murder trial.

"I was in the process of backing up" her minivan "when the shot hit my head," she said.

"My body jerked, so I knew I was being hit again," she said. And she remembered feeling the shot that hit her in the knee because it was right against her knee.

"I heard his voice and I felt the gun to my knee," she said.

She also remembers seeing her son, Joshua Haber, 19, "falling" into the back of the van at one point, and she remembers: "He took his last breath."

Later she remembered the sound of a woman's voice. It was apparently the voice of a nurse who had stopped to help Trent-Vokes and the four young males in her car, all of whom had been shot.

"I kept hearing a woman asking my name," she said.

Trent-Vokes spent a week in the hospital and four months in a nursing home after the shootings, she said. She had been shot six times altogether, including twice in her chest.

Hamad, 48, of state Route 46 in Howland, is charged with two counts of aggravated murder and several counts of attempted murder and could get the death penalty if convicted of certain of the charges.

Those killed were Haber and Josh Williams. Those injured were Bryce Hendrickson, Shively and Trent-Vokes, who drove the four males to Hamad’s home.

Hendrickson was on the witness list for the trial, but he died in a home in McDonald Sept. 30. Police suspect his death and that of a woman with him were the result of a drug overdose.

The next witness was Chris Bordanaro, a detective with the Lordstown Police Department, who testified to the bullets and 18 shell casings found at the crime scene, including two casings found just off the front porch of Hamad's house and a bullet just off of Hamad's property on state Route 46.

Tracy Hendrickson, Hamad's girlfriend and mother of Bryce Hendrickson, may testify today if there is time, but her testimony may be pushed back to later in the week.

8:30 a.m.

WARREN

April Trent-Vokes will resume her testimony today in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court in the aggravated murder trial of Nasser Hamad.

Hamad, 48, of state Route 46 in Howland, is charged with two counts of aggravated murder and several counts of attempted murder and could get the death penalty if convicted of certain of the charges.

Those killed were Joshua Haber, 19, and Josh Williams of Woodbine Avenue.

Those injured were Bryce Hendrickson, Shively and Trent-Vokes, who drove the four males to Hamad’s home.

Hendrickson was on the witness list for the trial, but he died in a home in McDonald Sept. 30. Police suspect his death and that of a woman with him were the result of a drug overdose.

Trent-Vokes, 42, testified Tuesday that her son, John Shively, 17, told her Feb. 25 about Facebook posts that had been exchanged between Hamad and Bryce Hendrickson, 20, that day that contained vulgar language.

The Facebook comments were part of a months-long feud between Hamad and family members of his girlfriend, Tracy Hendrickson, who is Bryce Hendrickson’s mother.

Also today, a Lordstown police detective is going to testify to physical evidence he gathered in the case, and prosecutors will play the videotaped interview that Hamad gave to police shortly after the shootings.

Tracy Hendrickson may testify today if there is time, but her testimony may be pushed back to later in the week.

Shively, who testified nearly three hours Tuesday, said he had not yet met Bryce Hendrickson, his distant cousin, in person before Feb. 25 because Shively and his family had just moved to Warren 12 days earlier from Florida. Shively said he had gotten to know Bryce through Facebook.

Shively and Trent-Vokes both said they had never met Hamad before Feb. 25.