Staff photo / Daniel Newman Brendan Daviduk accepts plea deal from Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office while standing before Judge Sean J. O’Brien alongside attorneys Lou DeFabio (left) and Brendan Rhys Cartwright Jones (right) in Trumbull County Court of Common Pleas on Monday.

WARREN — An aggravated murder defendant has accepted a plea deal that he previously rejected last week in Trumbull County Court of Common Pleas.

Brendan Daviduk, 30, pleaded guilty to aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, aggravated arson, attempted aggravated arson and tampering with evidence in Judge Sean J. O’Brien’s courtroom Monday.

Daviduk could be sentenced to 32 years to life.

“One of the reasons we rescheduled and why he actually decided to take this plea was, it’s very draining on the victim,” Chris Becker, assistant county prosecutor, said following the hearing.

“When the victim’s indicate that they’re satisfied with the result of the case, we’re almost 90% sure we’re going to take the plea. They were very satisfied with that in this case, and I’m sure Mr. Broadstone, and the victims are satisfied with this plea for the particular defendant.”

O’Brien asked Daviduk, “What has changed Thursday and today?”

Daviduk responded, “I just wanted to get it over with.”

Attorneys Lou DeFabio and Brendan Rhys Cartwright Jones are representing Daviduk in the case. The amended indictment filed in Daviduk’s case dismissed one aggravated murder charge and the death penalty specification attached to another count of aggravated murder. He will also have parole eligibility after 32 years.

AGREEMENT

Roger Broadstone, father of Chassidy Broadstone, 16, who was killed in a 2023 fatal arson, said he was satisfied with the plea.

“Yeah, we all are,” Broadstone said. “We talked about it and we’re pretty satisfied with it. 32 years is a long time to come up for parole.”

In December, Daviduk’s co-defendant Zackary Gurd accepted a plea deal allowing him to avoid a potential death sentence.

The jointly recommended plea deal accepted by Judge Cynthia W. Rice would see Gurd, 23, of Youngstown, face between 40 to 60 years. Gurd pleaded guilty to an amended indictment of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, aggravated arson, aggravated burglary and tampering with evidence.

He will be sentenced next spring following the conclusion of Daviduk’s case and the case of his co-defendant, Patricia Zarlingo who is expected to go on trial in July.

“In most cases, there are actually two aggravated murder counts for one victim,” Becker said in reference to Daviduk’s case. “So, by law they would have merged. He couldn’t have gotten the death penalty twice. There were just two different theories as to how we were going to try to approach the death penalty.”

Prisoners released under parole eligibility aren’t usually released for decades, the prosecutor noted.

“We also acknowledge that the defense attorneys put in a lot of work to get someone to plead guilty,” Becker continued. “Quite honestly, it’s very difficult to get a defendant to sign a piece of paper saying ‘I could spend the rest of my life in prison.’ We understand that, we’re cognizant of that, so we thought we’d let them take one more chance at this potential plea. And thanks to the good work of the two defense attorneys, they were able to convince him that this was an acceptable deal to him.”