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Byrd found not guilty of murder
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
In tears after a jury in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court found Albert Byrd IV not guilty of killing her son, Melissa Blidi said her son was her “miracle baby.”
Blidi said her son, Jermaine Donlow, who was stabbed to death Aug. 1, was the only one of her several pregnancies she was able to carry to term.
“This was my miracle baby who God spared his life, only to have it taken away,” Blidi said.
Jurors took only a couple of hours to find Byrd, 24, of Wilshire Drive, not guilty for the death of the 26-year-old Donlow, who was stabbed to death in the Tyrell Avenue apartment of an ex-girlfriend, Louanne Johnson.
Johnson also was charged with murder but she pleaded guilty Oct. 29 to a reduced charge of obstructing justice in exchange for her testimony.
She testified she called police after a fire alarm was pulled while she was in her West Side apartment with Byrd and Donlow. She said Donlow and Byrd fought outside her apartment and the fight rolled into her apartment. She said she ran out to her car, and Byrd came out a few minutes later and his clothes had blood on them.
During a ride to the home of Byrd’s mother, Byrd told her he stabbed Donlow, she testified. She also testified that earlier in the evening Byrd had armed himself with a knife.
Byrd claimed self-defense and testified on his own behalf.
Blidi said her son was only there that night because Johnson asked him to come over. She said she knows that because “I was the last person on the phone with him.”
“How he got away with murder, I’m not sure,” Blidi said of Byrd. “My son’s life didn’t matter. My son had no voice.”
Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa said she did not want to comment.