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Man found not guilty of murder
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Jurors in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court took less than three hours Wednesday to find a 24-year-old Campbell man not guilty of aggravated murder.
Jurors rendered their verdict before visiting Judge Thomas Pokorny, finding Charles Allen not guilty of the Aug. 29, 2017, shooting death of Tyreese Lynch, 22, who died several hours after being shot in a car on Chicago Avenue.
Defense attorney Walter Madison shook hands with his client after the verdict was returned. There was a shout of joy from Allen’s family when the verdict was read.
“God bless America and our jury system and the jurors to make an intelligent decision,” Madison said.
Assistant Prosecutor Rob Andrews said he disagreed with the jury’s verdict but respected it.
Andrews said in his closing argument that Lynch had “money on his head.” He said Allen wanted to collect on a bounty for Lynch, but Andrews did not say why Lynch had a bounty.
In his closing argument, Madison said there are no witnesses who saw Allen with a gun the night of the shooting, and he also said the co-defendant, Jamar Sklenchar, who testified for the prosecution, should not be trusted because he had plenty of reason to lie.
Madison told jurors they must carefully weigh Sklenchar’s testimony because he only testified for the prosecution so he could get a plea deal.
Sklenchar was motivated to testify against Allen because Allen is now seeing the mother of Sklenchar’s child, Madison said.
“He’s got an ax to grind now,” Madison said.
Andrews said two witnesses saw a person running in a field on Chicago Avenue wearing clothing that Sklenchar said Allen was wearing when Allen was killed. Andrews also said that Madison would try to confuse jurors with social media postings about the crime and other things. He told them it was all a distraction.
“Stay focused on the things Charles Allen did, what Charles Allen said,” Andrews said.
Madison said evidence from Lynch’s autopsy showed that the bullet that killed him was not fired from close range and the day after Lynch died a person on nearby St. Louis Avenue reported a bullet hole in his car. Madison said police failed to investigate if there was an exchange of gunfire that killed Lynch and that investigators failed to test Lynch for gunshot residue.
No weapon was found with Lynch when police discovered him in the car. Police also failed to find the murder weapon.
Allen remains in jail on unrelated charges. Judge Pokorny said he did not want to set a bond because he is not the trial judge in those cases.