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WARREN -- This week, Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Cynthia Rice will hand down the sentence for 18-year-old Gavin Roberts after he was found guilty during an October murder trial for the November 2022 death of a man from Farrell, Pa.
A sentencing hearing has been set for 1 p.m. Thursday after a 1 1/2-day trial concluded earlier this month with a jury finding Roberts guilty on charges of aggravated murder and aggravated robbery with firearm specifications.
The case was prosecuted by First Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Christopher D. Becker alongside assistant prosecutor Gabriel Wildman in opposition to defense attorney Jeffrey Goodman.
During the trial, it was learned that the victim, 37-year-old Brice Hilton, drove to the area with his pregnant girlfriend, Blair Legg, after Hilton had come into contact with Roberts through a shopping app.
Hilton was looking to purchase a cellphone for his son's birthday later that month. The arrangement between Hilton and Roberts was for $220 for the phone. Legg testified in court that the couple stopped at an ATM at a Sheetz in Warren, believing Hilton in total had over $200 in cash to complete the sale.
As the couple pulled into Trumbull Homes, they parked near the defendant and two other individuals were inside the car waiting.
When Roberts stepped out of the vehicle, the memo states he was armed with a fully loaded .38 Special Revolver, but the defendant did not have a cellphone. Instead, Roberts placed a cut potato into an iPhone box in what was learned during the trial as a ploy in the robbery of an unsuspecting Hilton.
Hilton quickly realized and attempted to back out of the sale. Roberts responded by pulling out the revolver and shooting Hilton several times.
From her view of the car, Legg testified that her boyfriend immediately fell to the ground after the first shot. This testimony was corroborated by Carter Hall, one of the men who arrived to the area with Roberts. Hall also testified via a police statement read by the prosecution during the two-and-a-half-day murder trial.
Four additional gunshot wounds were determined by Trumbull County Forensic Pathologist and Deputy Coroner Dr. Geroge Sterbenz who testified that one of the gunshots suffered by Hilton would have paralyzed him.
Roberts fired a final shot before rummaging through Hilton's pockets and retrieving the $220 dollars.
That money was later found in the couch of William Cole Sr. and his family - whose home Roberts retreated to in search of Carter Hall and Cole Sr's son, William Cole Jr., who was also in the vehicle during the slaying of Hilton.
The father and son both testified during the trial.
For the murder of Hilton, the state argued in the memo that Roberts should receive a sentence that commensurate the "death and destruction he has caused."
The memorandum further stresses that the behavior of the killing was "infinitely more depraved" and serious compared to other murders when considering that Roberts did not allow for Hilton to turn over the money before escalating to violence resulting in "paralyzing the victim and then executing on the street," the document states.
The state said in the memo that Roberts showed "no genuine remorse" and ultimately orphaned the children of Hilton and left his girlfriend, traumatized by the experience having witnessed the murder unfold while just a few feet away.