Friday, May 17, 2019
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A Mahoning County grand jury Thursday indicted two men in the June 2018 shooting death of a man in the Plaza View Apartments on the East Side.
Stephon Hopkins, 22, and Brian Donlow, 24, both of Youngstown, face several charges, including aggravated murder, in the death of Brandon Wylie, 30, who was found shot to death just after midnight in the grass at the housing complex.
Donlow was a suspect early on and was questioned but was released. He is serving a six-month prison sentence for a parole violation. Records show he was expected to be released May 27.
Hopkins is already in jail on charges of aggravated murder and attempted murder for the Nov. 18 shooting death of Christopher Jackson, 21, of Warren, who was found shot to death in a car in a field on Bennington Avenue, also on the East Side.
The co-defendant with Hopkins in that case, Lorice Moore, also was a person of interest in Wylie’s death and was questioned and released. They were both indicted in February by a grand jury in Jackson’s death.
Police Chief Robin Lees said just because a case is not solved right away, that does not mean detectives forget, especially a murder case.
“Nobody should make the mistake that we do not continue to follow up on these cases,” Lees said.
Detective Sgt. Chad Zubal, lead investigator, said detectives investigating Jackson’s death found information that helped police get the evidence they needed to indict Hopkins and Donlow.
Zubal would not say what the information was, but he did say Hopkins was a suspect early on in Wylie’s death.
A coroner’s report said Wylie had been shot eight times. Investigators found a revolver and 14 spent cartridges all from the same type of gun several feet from his body, the report said. Witnesses reported hearing gunshots and seeing two men run away.
Surveillance video released by police shows someone throwing something into a sewer opening while running away. Police will not say if they found anything in that sewer.
Shortly after Wylie’s death, police had a conference at Plaza View seeking information in his death, and a vigil was held by family members in September also asking for information. Wylie was a former football player at East High School and served in the Army for seven years.