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Woman who pleaded to lesser charge in murder case gets probation
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A woman who pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of obstruction of justice in a murder case earlier this year was sentenced Wednesday to probation.
Prosecutors in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court had asked for incarceration because they claimed that Louanne Johnson, 21, of Tyrell Avenue, subtly changed her testimony during the murder trial in November 2018 of Albert Byrd, 24, causing her to be “untruthful.”
Judge Anthony D’Apolito, however, said he did not believe her testimony was untruthful, and he upheld an earlier recommendation for probation.
Byrd was found not guilty of murder in the Aug. 1 stabbing death of Jermaine Donlow, 26, in Johnson’s apartment. He pleaded self-defense.
Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa said Johnson had changed the wording when she testified in the trial before a jury from a statement she gave prosecutors about the crime when she entered her guilty plea.
The changes, even though they were subtle, could have been enough to deceive jurors, she said.
Judge D’Apolito said that it is not uncommon for defendants to vary in small ways from their testimony, but Cantalamessa said she needed to be accurate.
“We should be able to rely on the exact wording,” Cantalamessa said.
Johnson’s attorney, James Wise, said his client is unlike others who appear in court, such as police officers or attorneys or other law-enforcement personnel who testify regularly.
“There are people not used to testifying,” Wise said. “They get intimidated by the system or on the witness stand.”
Wise also said his client was given a low risk to reoffend in a presentence investigation and she has just one conviction, a domestic-violence conviction that he would have advised her to take to trial instead of enter a guilty plea. She also spent three months in jail before she entered into her plea.
Judge D’Apolito said he did not think that Johnson was trying to mislead anyone. He called Donlow’s death a tragedy that did not have to happen.
“I hope your conscience always remembers the victim in this matter and it guides you in your life,” Judge D’Apolito said.