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Man sentenced for West Side murder
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Through gritted teeth and tears Monday, Katheline Holden recalled her murdered son kicking her from inside the womb as she sang, and then touching his cold skin while he was in a coffin.
Holden, the mother of Evan Amos, 22, who was shot and killed Oct. 18, 2017, after answering a knock on the door of his South Lake-view Avenue home, at times was shaking as she spoke at the sentencing hearing for Jesse Stewart, 21.
Stewart pleaded guilty before Judge Anthony Donofrio in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to charges that he killed Amos during a robbery.
“I was eight months pregnant, and I remember singing ‘Go Tell It On The Mountain’ and he kicked me like crazy,” she said. “I watched them take my baby out of his apartment in a body bag, and all I wanted to do was touch him but they wouldn’t let me.”
Holden told the judge she was not able to touch her son until he was in his coffin, and his skin was cold to the touch.
“I never knew someone could live with this constant pain and not go insane,” Holden said.
Stewart pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, aggravated robbery and being a felon in possession of a firearm for the death of Amos.
Judge Donofrio sentenced him to 25 years, which was the sentence agreed upon by the attorneys in the case. The pleas Monday headed off jury selection in Stewart’s trial.
Assistant Prosecutor Steve Maszczak told the judge that a week before Amos was killed, Stewart and a co-defendant, Jesse Perry, also 21, hatched a plan to rob Amos of marijuana, cash and any other valuables he might have.
After Amos answered a knock on his door from the pair, he struggled with Perry, causing Perry to drop his gun. Stewart fired three times, striking Amos, and when Perry ran away Stewart fired three more times, also striking Amos.
“The only thing he could do that night was defend himself and that cost him his life,” Maszczak said.
Perry pleaded guilty in March 2018 to involuntary manslaughter and received a 13-year sentence because he promised to cooperate.
Stewart declined to speak.
Amos’ sister, Sara Amos, also spoke of seeing her brother in his coffin and needing his strength to get through the calling hours and funeral.
“I needed him to hug me and tell me I was going to be OK,” Sara Amos said.