Guilty of Four Murders

Robert K. Yosay | Posted May 6th 2016

Assistant Mahoning County Prosecutor Martin Desmond says the two men jurors found guilty Thursday in common pleas court for their roles as enforcers in a drug ring are the worst he has ever prosecuted. Michael Austin, 22, was found guilty of three counts of aggravated murder for the deaths of Adam Christian, 23, and Raymond “Ramel” Hayes, 20, on Nov. 11 and 13, 2011, and the death of 20-year-old Ryan Slade in September 2011, as well as murder for the death of Keara McCullough, 19, who was killed along with Slade in a car on Benford Lane. Hakeem Henderson, 24, was found guilty of aggravated murder for the deaths of Christian and Hayes and not guilty in the deaths of Slade and McCullough. Prosecutors said the two were enforcers for an East Side drug ring and the killings were carried out at the behest of the leaders of the ring. “These guys are by far the worst of the worst,” Desmond said. “These are the types of guys, if they got out, they’d do it again.”