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WARREN -- Jury deliberations are to began today in the aggravated murder trial of Ronieque Requel, accused of shooting to death 28-year-old Adam Spaid.
After hearing from about 15 witnesses from the state and one for the defense over the course of the past week, both sides gave their closing arguments.
Requel faces two counts of aggravated murder, one count of aggravated robbery, one count of aggravated burglary, one count of not being allowed to have a weapon and one count of intimidation -- all with firearm specifications, plus one count of receiving stolen property.
The prosecution team cast doubt over the story Requel told the jurors.
Requel recanted his recollection of the events that took place the early morning of Feb. 5 when police say he and four other men entered the 2109 Milton St. home of Spaid to rob him -- and Spaid then suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
Testifying for close to an hour, Requel fashioned himself as a reluctant participant in the home invasion, forced into tagging along under threat of his life, and that of his family, by the other men.
This differs from what he told detective Frank Tempesta shortly after he was detained by police. Requel told Tempesta that he was at the home of Spaid and his girlfriend to buy marijuana.
THE INTERVIEW
"So you tell me: What happened tonight?" Tempesta asked Requel, still wearing the red hoodie seen in surveillance footage during the home invasion.
"I wanted to go buy some weed off a dude that lived there," he told the detective.
Trial testimony revealed drugs were observed by police inside of the home, including bundles of marijuana. Spaid's girlfriend, Gabrielle McCullough, testified Monday that her boyfriend did sell drugs.
After buying, Requel said he planned to drive to Youngstown, to Steel City Bar and Grill in the 1400 block of East Midlothian Boulevard.
In Requel's version of events, he was in the home with both Spaid and McCullough when gunshots began. "As soon as he let me in, just shots fired and all that (expletive)," Requel said.
Requel claimed he hid behind a refrigerator in a back room of the residence. When the shooting stopped, he picked up a gun from the living room floor, Requel told investigators.
Requel told police he was upset when he found that the gun was empty.
"All I was trying to do was protect myself, bro," Requel said.
The gun Requel said he grabbed was next to Spaid, who was still alive.
"I wasn't about to sit there and just try to wait for it. He not my homie or nothing, so I'm not about to sit there and try to bring him back to life and wait for nobody else to come," Requel said.
Tempesta asked: "So you grab the gun. Where do you go?"
Requel told Tempesta he was going to go out an upstairs window and jump off of the side of the roof to escape.
The investigator begins explaining to Requel that he knows he didn't come to the Milton Street Home alone.
"There was four people with you," Tempesta said. "It's all on video."
REQUEL TESTIMONY
In Requel's retelling of that night, he was preparing to go to the bar for drinks the night of Feb. 4 when he got a text from someone about going to "hit a lick for $20,000."
"Hit a lick" is street terminology for stealing from an easy target or to quickly acquire a large amount of money.
Requel told the jurors that he declined to participate in the robbery. But at the East Midlothian bar he was approached by two men wearing black ski-masks, one nicknamed "Prada" and the other, "Chubby."
Under threat, Requel told jurors, he drove himself to the area of Spaid's home in Warren but was sandwiched between two other cars of men.
Requel testified that when surveillance footage from the side of Spaid's home showed him "directing traffic" as the prosecution alleged, he instead was trying to sabotage the robbery by telling the other four that people were inside.
The prosecution stated the footage shows Requel directing the men from one side of the house after a failed attempt by one of the men.
Inside the home, Requel said he did not fire a shot despite the fact that the gun found on him was tested by a forensic expert. The expert testified the gun fired at least 20 shots inside the home including several bullets that struck Spaid.