Staff photo / Ed Runyan Burton McGee, left, stands with his attorney, Tony Meranto, during McGee's plea hearing Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

YOUNGSTOWN — Burton McGee, 20, and Martize Daniels, 19, pleaded guilty Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to reduced charges in the Jan. 24, 2019, shooting death of a woman.

Crystal Hernandez, 23. was killed while holding her 2-year-old son in her McBride Street home.

Both Youngstown men agreed to be witnesses in the trial that starts Monday. There are now four co-defendants charged with murder in the shooting death.

McGee’s guilty plea Monday morning to involuntary manslaughter, conspiracy and a gun specification means he could get 25 years in prison, but prosecutors are recommending 20.

Later Monday, Daniels pleaded guilty to felonious assault and a gun specification, but new information that arose during the ongoing investigation indicated that Daniels was “not involved” in the Hernandez killing, Kevin Trapp, an assistant prosecutor, said.

Instead, Daniels’ charges are for shooting at Gabriel Smith, 19, earlier Jan. 24 and for a gun specification attached to the charge, Trapp said. Daniels could get up to 11 years in prison, but prosecutors are recommending seven years.

Judge Anthony Donofrio, who is presiding over all six cases, can deviate from both recommended sentences. Both men will be sentenced after the cases against the four others — Marquise Torres-Willis, 22; Joquaun Blair, 22; Maurice Redrick, 20; Larenz Rhodes, 19 — are complete.

Hernandez was killed as the third part of an escalating conflict throughout the day Jan. 24 that started with Daniels firing at Smith — Hernandez’s boyfriend. Prosecutors said Daniels shot at Smith in a dispute over drugs and money, but Smith was not hit by the gunfire.

In retaliation, Smith and Lavante Perry, 24, of Woodcrest Drive, went after Daniels at a home on McGuffey Road. Perry shot Daniels in the leg.

Thirdly, in retaliation for the shooting of Daniels, a group of males went to Smith’s McBride Street residence. They did not find Smith and Perry, but Smith’s girlfriend, Hernandez, and their son, were there. Hernandez was fatally shot in the neck as she shielded the child. The boy was not injured.

Smith was sentenced to five years in prison in October for his role in the episode. Perry, who was scheduled to be sentenced later this month for his actions, was found shot to death in a home on Woodcrest Dec. 11. No charges in that crime have been filed.

McGee, Daniels and the four going on trial Monday are in the Mahoning County Justice Center.

At Smith’s sentencing in October, Judge Donofrio told him, “This whole situation is very tragic. So many lives were touched as a result of this.”

He added, “Because of the confrontation you had with this other group of individuals — my understanding is one individual in particular — it kind of set this whole thing in motion, this whole course of events, in motion that ended up with murder and death of your child’s mother.”