Sentenced to probation three days before his death

July 16, 2019 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

A man found early Sunday in a car with a gunshot wound to the head had been sentenced to probation in a drug case just three days before his death.

Reshaud Biggs, 33, of Boardman, died at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital. His death is the 12th homicide in the city this year.

Biggs was found about 3:10 a.m. in a car parked in the 300 block of East Lucius Avenue on the South Side. He was breathing when paramedics arrived.

Chief Robin Lees said someone in another car fired at the car Biggs was in as it was parked in front of a home. Biggs was the only person in the car, Lees said.

Lt Brian Welsh said officers received a 911 call from someone in the area, and that is when they found the car and Biggs.

On July 10, Biggs was sentenced to probation after pleading guilty in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to a fourth-degree felony and fifth-degree felony charge of trafficking in cocaine. In 2009, Biggs was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in the Dec. 30, 2006, shooting death of Anthony Perez, 31, of Plazaview Court, and the attempted murder of Perez’s brother, William Burr, 27, of East Midlothian Boulevard, Struthers, as Perez and Burr detailed a car on Clearmount Drive.

Biggs was originally charged with aggravated murder but pleaded guilty to charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and abduction. His brother was sentenced to 16 years in the case on a manslaughter charge. Police said Perez was shot several times with an AK-47. Biggs was prepared to testify against his brother if he had to, according to Vindicator files.

Burr survived that shooting but was killed less than a year later when he was shot outside a South Avenue pizza shop.

Lees said detectives will check to see if that past crime had anything to do with Biggs’ death. He also said detectives will be closely scrutinizing any forsenic evidence found in the car, which will be sent away for testing.

Police were able to make arrests in a spate of homicides earlier this year from 2018 because of forsenic evidence they were able to collect from those crime scenes. Police would not say what, if anything, they found at the crime scene Saturday.

In 2018, Youngstown had 26 homicides and at this point in 2018, the city had nine homicides.

Police have made arrests in four homicides from this year, and have strong suspects in two others, one of which may be a self-defense case.