Testimony begins in retrial of 2017 murder

By Joe Gorman

jgorman@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The girlfriend of a man shot in a South Avenue bar nearly two years ago testified Wednesday she had a strange feeling just before the shooting.

Casey Pemberton told a jury and Judge Anthony Donofrio in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in the second trial of Johnny Ray Wallace, 24, who faces a murder charge in the Nov. 28, 2017, shooting death of Colin Brown, 45, at the Last Call Lounge, that Brown was in the bathroom when she had a feeling of foreboding.

Pemberton testified she opened the bathroom door and saw Brown inside. She asked Brown if he was OK and when he responded he was, she went back to her seat.

Seconds later, she said she heard a pop, and Wallace ran past her with a smirk on his face. She went in the bathroom and found Brown on the floor, bleeding heavily.

“The blood, it was like a fire hydrant,” Pemberton testified through tears.

Wallace was originally tried in Brown’s death in June 2018, but a mistrial was declared by former Judge Lou D’Apolito after jurors failed to reach a verdict. Prosecutors opted to try Wallace again.

Pemberton testified Brown was in the bathroom by himself before Wallace went inside.

Under cross-examination from defense attorney Tony Meranto, however, Pemberton said she was not aware if there were other people who were entering the bar while she was there.

Pemberton also said under direct examination about a week before Brown was killed, he had words with Wallace at another bar, and under cross-examination, she said Brown also had words with Wallace at the Last Call, but both times the pair seemed to be on good terms when they were finished talking, she said.

Jurors also heard 911 recordings of calls after Brown was shot.