Staff photo / Ed Runyan Ashaud Johnson, 19, of Warren and Southington had a smile on his face when the last of his guilty verdicts were read and confirmed Thursday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court. He was found guilty on all counts in the Feb. 11 shooting death of Da’Mar McKinney, 17, of Youngstown.

WARREN — A jury deliberated less than two hours Thursday before finding Ashaud Johnson, 19, of Warren and Southington, guilty of aggravated murder and other charges in the Feb. 11 shooting death of Da’Mar McKinney, 17, of Youngstown, outside of Johnson’s apartment on Mahoning Avenue.

Johnson, who testified as the last witness in the trial, could get as much as life in prison without parole, or he could get a lesser life sentence when Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Sarah Thomas Kovoor sentences him later.

Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Chris Becker said the minimum Johnson could get is 26 years to life in prison.

Johnson’s aggravated murder conviction says he killed McKinney, 17, of Youngstown, with prior calculation and design when Johnson fired 12 gunshots from an automatic handgun from the door of the Packard House apartment where he had lived for about a month.

Johnson also was convicted of two gun specifications, as well as two counts of tampering with evidence and one count of receiving stolen property related to the stolen car Johnson drove the night of the murder. The tampering with records convictions relate to the hiding of a gun and Johnson cutting off his dreadlocks after the shooting in an attempt to avoid being identified.

The gunshots went into the apartment parking lot, where McKinney and several other young people from Youngstown had come to obtain in a trade, according to trial testimony. The gun they wanted to obtain was Johnson’s gun, the one that Johnson fired at them.

Among the highlights of the trial was when Johnson took the stand to give his account of the events that led up to the gunfire, saying he, co-defendant Willis Smith IV, 18, and a juvenile drove that night down Mahoning Avenue, where Johnson said they were going to meet up with a group of people from Youngstown to trade guns.

But when they got there, they saw a Warren police car, and Johnson decided to cancel the meetup and go back to the apartment. At the apartment, he heard the juvenile talking to someone from the Youngstown group and believed the Youngstown group was in the apartment parking lot.

He said he looked out the glass door but did not see anyone and went back to the apartment, and about 2 1/2 minutes later, he and Smith went back to the glass door with Smith in front of him. It was about 11 p.m.

“As I was walking up the stairs, I heard gunshots go off. So me being scared, I felt it was necessary to fire my weapon to protect myself and my friend and my home,” Johnson said.

He was not aiming at anyone, he said. He and Smith went back to the apartment.

Under questioning by Becker, Johnson said about 18 minutes passed after Johnson, Smith and the juvenile returned to the apartment before the Youngstown group showed up at the apartment.

Johnson reiterated his account of hearing gunshots when he went up the stairs the second time. But Becker tried to cast doubt about that happening by playing the surveillance video from the apartment complex showing what was going on in the parking lot when Johnson and Smith were shooting.

One by one, Becker pointed to each of the people from the Youngstown group in the parking lot and asked if any of them looked like they had fired a gun.

“Do you see any muzzle flashes, anyone shooting in the air?” Becker asked.

“No sir,” Johnson said.

Becker asked Johnson if anytime he hears gunshots he just starts shooting.

“From the reaction of my cousin, I thought he was under fire, so I protected him and myself,” Johnson said of firing 12 times.

Becker said he doesn’t know the reason the interaction between Johnson, Smith and the people from Youngstown turned deadly, but fortunately he does not have to prove what the motive was.

“I really don’t know what the reasoning was. Obviously it wasn’t self defense,” Becker said.

The defense suggested that the Youngstown people were going to rob Johnson, Smith and the juvenile.

But on the video when Johnson and Willis Smith opened the door before they fired their guns “thinks they are waving to him” and motioned as if to say “Here I am. And they don’t have their guns drawn. They are not running up to the door. I think for whatever reason, Ashaud and Willis Smith decided to fire on those guys in the middle of the parking lot.”

Becker said it was fortunate in this case, as in many others, that there were many surveillance cameras that captured the episode.

Becker said the reason Johnson was convicted of prior calculation and design, which is sometimes known as premeditation, is that Johnson and Willis Smith went to the door about 2 1/2 minutes before the gunfire.

“So they are laying in wait,” Becker said. “For at least 2 1/2 minutes they were, for lack of a better term, stalking or laying in wait for them to arrive. They clearly knew they were coming.”

He said communications were going on between Johnson, Smith and the juvenile in the apartment with the people from Youngstown, so “clearly (Johnson, Smith and the juvenile) knew they were coming, and they laid in wait and ambushed them. I think the video clearly shows it.”

After the verdict, McKinney’s mother, Arielle Brown, said, “I am blessed. I’m excited. I got the justice for my baby.”

Ashley Johnson, Ashaud Johnson’s mother, said after the verdict she was “upset, but I’m also motivated, meaning I am not going to stop until my last breath. I am starting the appeal process tomorrow.”

She said she is “hurt, I’m hurt. I’m broken,” saying she did not expect the verdict that came back.

“Ashaud at the moment felt (threatened) for his life, and I felt like what I would do or anybody else,” Ashley Johnson said. “You have a group of teens coming from Youngstown. You don’t know them. They have guns. You are aware of that.”