43
Three more suspects charged in young mother's death
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Police have now charged six people in the Jan. 24 shooting death of a young mother in her East Side apartment.
U.S. marshals on Thursday were looking for Joquaun Blair, 22, and Maurice Redrick, 19, after murder warrants were issued for them late Wednesday in the death of Crystal Hernandez.
Hernandez, 24, died from a gunshot wound about 9:20 p.m. in her 686 McBride St. apartment as she held her 2-year-old son.
Also charged Wednesday was Larenz Rhodes, 18, but he is already in the Mahoning County jail on an unrelated burglary charge.
On Tuesday, marshals arrested Martize Daniels, 18, and Burton McGee, 19, in the death after warrants were issued for them earlier in the day. A third person charged with them, Marquise Torres-Willis, 21, is at large.
Police Chief Robin Lees said Thursday he does not expect anyone else to be charged in the death of Hernandez, who detectives say was not the target of the shooting.
Detectives have said the suspects were looking for her boyfriend, with whom they had a lengthy feud, but he was not at the apartment when they peppered it with gunfire. Investigators collected about 40 shell casings from at least three weapons, two of them handguns and one of them an assault rifle.
When Hernandez was shot, first responders found her son asleep on her chest as she was bleeding from a bullet wound to her neck. Her son was not harmed.
As of Thursday afternoon, police were still looking for Blair, Redrick and Torres-Willis.
In August, Rhodes was arrested at Turning Point Residential in Boardman after police responded to a report of a stolen van. He was caught after a foot chase.
Reports said he admitted stealing the van while the engine was running and also admitted that a gun police found in a backpack was his.
In 2016, court records show Blair pleaded no contest and was found guilty in Mahoning County Area Court in Boardman to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of justice.
No record could be found for Redrick.
Those in custody are expected to be arraigned today in municipal court.