Arraignments continue in East Side shooting cases

By Joe Gorman | February 5, 2019 at 12:05a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Bond was set Monday at $50,000 each for two men charged with a shooting that led to the death of an East Side woman in a retaliation shooting.

Judge Carla Baldwin of municipal court set the bonds for Gabriel Smith, 19, and Lavante Perry, 24, on charges of felonious assault during their arraignment.

Bond also was set at $1 million for Maurice Redrick on a charge of murder.

Police said Redrick was one of six men responsible for the death of Crystal Hernandez, 24, on Jan. 24 in her McBride Street apartment on the East Side.

Police said Hernandez was the girlfriend of Smith, who earlier in the day with Perry took a shot at a group of men who then went looking for Smith at Hernandez’s apartment and fired several shots into it. Smith was not there, and Hernandez was killed.

Three other men are in custody in connection with Hernandez’s death. Police are searching for two others.

Perry surrendered to police Friday, while Smith was taken into custody Friday after police contacted his parents, who in turn got their son from a nearby store and delivered him to officers.

During his arraignment, Perry told the judge he had four tumors in his back, while Redrick complained about a gunshot wound he said he suffered in 2015.

In the Hernandez case, police are still looking for Marquise Torres-Willis, 21.

A fifth suspect, Joquaun Blair, 22, surrendered to U.S. marshals on Monday afternoon.