‘The relief I needed’
Mother speaks after her son’s killer is convicted
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WARREN -- Six months after 34-year-old James Chapman was murdered, his family breathed a collective sigh of relief now that the man involved was found guilty of all charges.
Chapman's mother, Lasoneya Lynk, said she felt justice had been served and her prayers answered after many sleepless nights being sickened by the thoughts of the morning of April 2.
She thanked the Warren Police Department and the Trumbull County Prosecutors Office for their efforts seeing the case through to a guilty verdict against Kashaun Williams, 30.
"They actually gave me the relief I needed as a mother," Lynk said.
Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutors Christopher Becker and Gabriel Wildman headed the prosecution team against Williams attorneys, Anthony Meranto and Thomas Zena.
When Williams came to her son's home at 690 Lener Avenue around 4 a.m., Lynk said it was like, "the devil came and woke us up."
Huddled in a closet during the murder of Chapman and attempted murder of his girlfriend Martina Moore, 24, Lynk and her daughter, 21, testified earlier in the trial about how she was traumatized by the experience.
Lynk said she heard Williams say to her son, "I love you, Jay Bay" and her son responded, "Do what you're going to do," before the fatal shots were fired.
The lasting image Lynk was left with of her son, she said, was that of him with a sheet draped over his body.
"For a mother to have to experience that, he (Williams) needs to be taken off the street," Lynk said.
Williams took the stand Tuesday, weaving a narrative that failed to convince the jury that Moore had been the one to have committed the murder.
Lynk disputed his story as "a complete lie."
"For you to say James was like a brother to you and for me to hear him personally say 'I love you' and you turn around and kill my son in the same breath … he's an animal, he's a complete lunatic animal," Lynk said.
CLOSING ARGUMENTS
Closing arguments were given by Wildman and Meranto. They painted different pictures of the shooting.
The defense conceded during closing that Williams committed felonious assault of two women, Martina Moore and a woman police officer. But Meranto still called into question the events before and after the shooting of Chapman.
Wildman challenged jurors to decide the narrative they believed, telling them the defense's story were the "words of a madman … that are fiction, fantasy and fairy tales."
THE CHARGES
After three hours of deliberations, a jury found Williams guilty of two counts of aggravated murder, attempted murder, aggravated burglary, kidnapping, felonious assault, assault on a peace officer and receiving stolen property. He also was found guilty on all firearm specifications.
Judge Ronald Rice said the second phase, or mitigation phase, of the trial will continue 9 a.m. Monday. The defense will present evidence or reasons they believe should mitigate the evidence that called for the death penalty.
After the hearing, the jurors will deliberate and must vote 12-0 for the death recommendation, however, Rice will make the final determination.
If the jury were to vote against the death penalty, the judge can't place the death sentence back on the table later.
The minimum sentence for Williams will be life without parole until he's served 23 years and the maximum would be the death penalty.