Man indicted in Willow Street homicide

YOUNGSTOWN — A Mahoning County grand jury today indicted a suspect in the death of a man on Willow Street in March.

Leonard Carter, 30, of Stewart Avenue, was indicted on a charge of murder for the death of Marqueese Shine, 27, inside a vacant 771 Willow St. home.

Carter was already facing two counts of attempted murder for attacks on two other men in March. After one of those attacks on March 27 the victim called police and told them he had been attacked in the East Side home.

When officers went inside the home, they found Shine’s body in a second-floor bedroom. He had been dead about a week before he was found.

There was evidence that Shine had been cut with a machete, which was used on the other victims, police said.

Detective Sgt. Michael Cox, lead investigator on the case, said he took the case to the grand jury after tests by the Ohio Bureau of Investigation found Carter’s DNA on the victim.

Carter was indicted in May for the other two attacks. He has been in the Mahoning County jail since his indictment.

The house where Shine was found burned down several weeks later.

The county coroner’s office ruled Shine’s death a homicide due to blunt force trauma and “sharp force trauma.”