Trial begins in weapons, drug case

By Joe Gorman

jgorman@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Opening statements were Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for a man charged with being a felon in possession of firearms and receiving stolen property.

Prosecutors said Arthur Tarver, 19, had a stolen AR-15 in the bedroom of a home on 311 E. Judson Ave. that was found by police officers serving a search warrant investigating drug activity in May.

Also in the South Side bedroom was a loaded .40-caliber handgun, an extended magazine, another magazine and a backpack with various ammunition inside, Assistant Prosecutor Joe Maxin said in his opening statement.

Police also found a scale, an elaborate security system, a white powder later found to be a synthetic cannabinoid and $709 cash in a safe that had to be pried open.

Tarver has a felony burglary conviction from juvenile court that bars him from having a firearm.

Judge Anthony D’Apolito is hearing the case.

In a separate case, Tarver and another man are accused of attempted murder in connection with the shooting of a man in July across the street from the home where the warrant was served.

Maxin said police serving the warrant found the guns in a bedroom Tarver used. He said the AR-15 was reported stolen in December 2017.

Maxin said prosecutors would use “constructive possession” to prove their case. Constructive possession is a legal doctrine that states while a defendant may not have physical possession of an item, they have control over it.

Defense attorney Mark Lavelle said the home police searched was the home of Tarver’s mother, and 13 other people were living in there at the time the warrant was served.

Lavelle said Tarver was staying with his mother while recuperating from a November 2017 shooting where he was wounded. Tarver still needs to use a colostomy bag because of the wounds received in that shooting, Lavelle said.

Lavelle said the issue jurors would have to decide is if Tarver actually possessed the guns while he was in the home.