Jurors issue guilty verdicts in Last Call murder case

YOUNGSTOWN

Jurors late Friday issued guilty verdicts on murder and a gun specification for Johnny Ray Wallace III following his trial.

Wallace, 24, was accused of killing Colin Brown, 25, Nov, 28, 2017, in the Last Call Lounge on South Avenue.

Jurors got the case to deliberate about 11 a.m. Friday. Judge Anthony Donofrio heard the case. Last June a jury could not reach a verdict in the case so prosecutors opted to retry Wallace.

As in the first trial, prosecutors said Brown was shot in the restroom of the bar and presented witnesses who said they saw Brown go in the restroom and Wallace go in after him. No one else was seen leaving or going in. After a shot was fired, Wallace was seen coming out of the restroom.

A hat found next to the restroom tested positive for Wallace’s DNA and he also cut his dreadlocks off before he was arrested by police, which prosecutors said was a sign that he was planning to flee and wanted to change his appearance.

Defense attorney Tony Meranto said in his closing argument police did not investigate Brown’s murder thoroughly once they had Wallace as a suspect. He said because of that police ignored other scenarios where someone else could have killed Brown.

“If you believe he did it, you ignore all the other possibilities,” Meranto said.

Assistant Prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa said police checked phones and a video system that did not work just to make sure they did not overlook anything. She also said attempts by the defense to impugn Brown’s character as a reason why someone would have wanted to shoot him were nothing more than a distraction.

“Nothing Colin Brown did that night made him deserve to be murdered,” Cantalamessa said in her closing argument.