Appeals court upholds convictions

staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — The Seventh District Court of Appeals has upheld the manslaughter and robbery convictions and the 18-year prison term imposed on Craig Owens in the April 13, 2004, shooting death of Efrin Brown.

On Thursday, the three-judge appellate panel unanimously overruled Owens’ claim that he received ineffective assistance from his lawyer, Mark Carfolo.

In March 2007, Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed the prison term on Owens, 25, of Bassett Lane. It consisted of 10 years for involuntary manslaughter, five years for aggravated robbery and three years for a gun specification, all to be served consecutively.

Owens had pleaded guilty to those charges in a plea agreement, in which the homicide charge was reduced from aggravated murder to involuntary manslaughter.

Brown, 26, of Kendis Circle, was found dead of a single gunshot wound to the head April 16, 2004, in a vacant Kendis Circle apartment near his home — three days after his family had reported him missing.