Indictments handed down in killing of young mother

February 9, 2019 at 12:07a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

A Mahoning County grand jury Thursday indicted eight people in a series of shootings that ended with the Jan. 24 death of a woman in her East Side apartment.

Indicted in the murder of Crystal Hernandez, 24, are Marquise Torres-Willis, 22; Joquaun Blair, 21; Maurice Redrick, 19; Larenz Rhodes, 18; Martize Daniels, 18; and Burton McGee, 19.

Police say these men were looking for Hernandez’s boyfriend, Gabriel Smith, 19, and shot up her McBride Street apartment as she was holding her sleeping 2-year-old son because Smith and another man, Lavante Perry, 24, had taken a shot at them earlier in the day.

Smith and Perry are indicted on charges of felonious assault in that shooting.

Police said Smith tried to steal drugs and money from the men, and when they found out, they shot at Smith, who retaliated. The six then went looking for Smith at Hernandez’s apartment and fired several shots at it. Police collected at least 40 shell casings from three weapons, including an assault weapon.

First responders found Hernandez bleeding from a gunshot wound to the neck and her son asleep on her chest. The boy was not harmed.

Those charged in the murder have been in the Mahoning County jail on $1 million bond each since they were arraigned in municipal court. Smith and Perry have been in the jail on $50,000 bond each since their arraignments in municipal court.