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Woman expected to plead guilty in murder case

YOUNGSTOWN — A Mahoning County grand jury indicted 14 people Thursday, but a person bound over to the grand jury months ago is expected to plead guilty to criminal charges next week without being indicted.

Courtney Hall, 30, of Akron was bound over to the grand jury March 27 on complicity to aggravated murder in the Feb. 29 shooting deaths of Sierra Morris, 25, and her father, Leroy Morris, 58, in their West Judson Avenue home.

Prosecutors say Hall drove John W. Bruner III, 31, with whom Hall lived, to the Morris home and dropped him off. She then went to a nearby store and waited.

After Bruner killed the Morrises, he got back in the car with Hall and they returned to their home in Akron.

Bruner pleaded guilty Aug. 26 to murder and other charges before Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court and received an agreed-upon sentence of 41 years to life in prison. Bruner is a Warren native.

Hall has been in the Mahoning County jail since her March 17 arrest. Court records indicate she is expected to enter a guilty plea to unspecified charges at 1 p.m. Wednesday before Judge John Durkin.

Instead of her charges going before the grand jury, she is expected to plead guilty to a prosecutorás bill of information, which is a way for a defendant to conclude a case without the grand jury process.

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