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Plea entered in 2009 murder case
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
The October murder of a key witness was one factor in ending the longest pending criminal case in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
Paul Brown, 40, pleaded guilty Wednesday before Judge Maureen Sweeney to a charge of involuntary manslaughter by agreement of the parties in the May 2009 shooting death of Ashten Jackson, 17. Prosecutors recommended a sentence of nine years time served, which is how much time Brown has served waiting for the case to proceed.
Judge Sweeney upheld the recommendation, and Brown will be released.
Brown has had three mistrials in his case and has served a federal prison sentence on a firearms violation related to this case.
Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa said a key witness, Jamell North, 40, was shot and killed early Oct. 26 inside his 2119 Summer St. home along with his mother, Hallie North, 67.
“He was going to be vital in our case,” Cantalamessa said.
Investigators did look to see if the killing was related to the case but they determined it was not, Cantalamessa said.
The last mistrial was in September after a jury was seated and Brown said he wanted a new lawyer. He went through three lawyers in the case.
Brown is accused of killing Jackson sometime near 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 Brown’s first attorney, Tony 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.
Meranto had asked the 7th District Court of Appeals in 2015 to have the charges against Brown dropped because he claimed the two mistrials violated Brown’s rights under the constitution that he could not be tried twice for the same offense, but the appeals court ruled against him.
Brown turned down a similar offer about a year ago, Cantalamessa said.