Death penalty possible in Warren murder case

9-count indictment includes aggravating circumstances

WARREN -- A Warren man stood calmly as a Trumbull County judge Thursday read a nine-count indictment that includes death-penalty level specifications in the murder of 34-year-old James Chapman.

Chapman was found shot to death early April 2 at a Lener Avenue SW address.

The capital murder case against Kashaun Robin Williams, 29, is the third such filed in Trumbull County since late last year -- something Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Becker said he hasn't seen in his 25 years in the county.

Williams was indicted in a special Trumbull County grand jury report charging him with two counts of aggravated murder; and one count each of attempted murder, felonious assault, kidnapping, aggravated burglary, having weapons while under disability, receiving stolen property and assault on a peace officer. The first six charges carry specifications of aggravating circumstances, repeat violent offender and committing the crime using a firearm.

The aggravating circumstances carry the death-penalty level punishment because two or more people were targeted and other felonies were committed in the act of the aggravated murder, according to court officials.

Williams is a repeat violent offender, according to court records, because he was convicted twice of felonious assault -- once in 2017 and again in 2019 -- in Trumbull County. He also was prosecuted on an aggravated robbery as a juvenile.

Rice said he would give Williams a week to hire his own attorney. If he does not, at a pretrial hearing at 9 a.m. April 13, the judge will appoint attorneys certified in capital murder cases to represent Williams. In the meantime, Williams is being held in Trumbull County jail without bond.

THE SHOOTINGS

Williams was arrested by Warren police shortly after Chapman had died Sunday morning of gunshot wounds, and Marina Lee Moore, 23, of Warren, was taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds to her body and other injuries consistent with being hit and / or beaten with a gun, according to an affidavit written by Warren detectives.

The man with long dreadlocks, identified as Williams, was attempting to put Moore, who was covered with blood, into the back of a vehicle when officers arrived to investigate a shots-fired call at the Lener Avenue address.

The man fled and dropped a firearm, identified as a 9mm Springfield model XD-S, which had been reported stolen during a burglary in Fowler Township in January, the affidavit states.

The driver of the vehicle that Williams was attempting to put Moore into later was identified as a 33-year-old Warren woman. Williams, meanwhile, fled to the back of the 600 block of Lener and eventually was arrested in a heavily wooded area.

Moore identified Williams as her abductor and the shooter, and the statement was recorded on an officer's body camera, according to the affidavit.

Moore stated that when Williams was forcing her into the back seat of the vehicle, she was grabbing at his gun and fighting him for control of the weapon.

She was in control of the gun after Williams had fled and officers arrived.

The body of Chapman was discovered just outside the front door of 690 Lene r. He was laying on his back and had no pulse. The affidavit stated Chapman died as a result of at least one gunshot wound.

Other witnesses at the Lener residence told officers they were sleeping when they heard banging on the house and someone yelling for "James" (Chapman). They identified the man banging on the windows as "Rudy," which the affidavit said is a nickname for Williams. It was shortly after that the residents heard gunshots and called 911.

Officers recovered multiple cartridge casings at the shooting scenes and in the house. Also recovered was a second firearm, a SCCY 9mm model CPX-2, which was found under the driver's seat of the vehicle where Moore was struggling with Williams.

OTHER CAPITAL CASES

Williams is the fifth person to be charged with death-penalty-level crimes in the last nine months.

Three people from Youngstown -- Zackary W. Gurd, 23, Brendan Daviduk, 28, and Patricia Zarlingo, 27 -- have been charged in the Jan. 19 arson death of Chassidy Broadstone, a Warren G. Harding High School junior. Gurd, whose trial is set for February 2024, is being held on $500,000 bond, while Daviduk and Zarlingo are in jail with no bond.

Dominic M. Harvey, 23, of Hillsdale Drive NW, Champion, is being charged with capital murder in the July 2022 fatal shooting of Jauton Lee Jr., 23, in front of a popular Warren restaurant. Harvey, whose trial is scheduled for Aug. 21, also is being held without bond in Trumbull County jail.

Prosecutor Dennis Watkins said this is the first time since the death penalty has been restored in Ohio in the early 1980s that five capital cases have been processed within a nine-month period in Trumbull County. Watkins said he can remember five death-penalty cases in the mid-1990s over two years' time.

"This shows the way society is going. We have repeat violent offenders getting the chance at parole and being let out and continuing their harm on the public," Watkins said.

Becker said he praised the fantastic job of Warren detectives in the Williams case, getting an indictment within four days.

"That's why we have a police force and court system -- to protect our community," Becker said.