Staff photo / Ed Runyan Michael Sherman, 20, left, listens to testimony during his murder trial Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

YOUNGSTOWN — Evidence on the first day of Michael Sherman’s aggravated murder and aggravated robbery trial Tuesday made it clear Sherman is not suspected of being the triggerman in the March 3, 2018, shooting death of Brandon Wareham, 18, near a home on Rhoda Avenue on the West Side.

In fact, testimony repeatedly suggested that co-defendant Mark Winlock Jr., 19, of Austintown, is the man who approached and fatally shot Wareham as he sat in his car, thinking he was about to sell marijuana to someone.

But in opening statements in the courtroom of Judge Anthony D’Apolito, assistant Prosecutor Jennifer Paris told jurors Sherman, 20, does not have to be the triggerman to be convicted of the charges.

She explained that “complicity” under Ohio law relates to a person who “aids or abets another to commit an offense or conspires with another to commit an offense and shares the same criminal intent as the principal.”

She said Sherman is complicit in Wareham’s killing.

She explained that Wareham was killed because a group of teens hanging out at the Rhoda address March 2, 2018, decided to “to rob small-time marijuana dealers of their marijuana” using fake money.

They tried this scheme three times March 2, succeeding once. Their second target saw through the scheme. Wareham, who was target three, did not show up.

But the next day, they tried to rob Wareham again. Sherman was not part of the group March 2, but he was on March 3, Paris said.

A girl who was part of the scheme used the social-media site SnapChat to contact Wareham, Paris said. She asked him to pull to the back of the driveway near the back of the house on Rhoda. Another young girl served as a “decoy” and met Wareham at the car.

Sherman, Winlock and Daniel P. Sullivan II, 19, went out the front door after Wareham pulled in, went around the back of the house, then rushed up to Wareham, Paris said.

“Within a second or two, Winlock fires two times. Brandon is hit once — in the chest. And within moments, he is dead in the street,” Paris said.

Andrew Zellers, one of Sherman’s attorneys, told jurors in his opening statement that Sherman was present at the time Wareham was killed, but Sherman did not know anyone was planning to commit a robbery.

“Michael disputes that he knew a robbery was going to occur. Michael disputes that he knew a gun was going to be used,” Zellers said.

“Let’s be clear again. Michael Sherman is not the shooter here. Mark Winlock is. Michael is accused of being a complicitor. He is accused of aiding or abetting” another, he said.

One of the first witnesses was Amara Jenkins, Wareham’s girlfriend, who was in the car. She testified a young girl approached the car first, but Wareham wouldn’t give her the marijuana. She stepped to the side, and a tall male stepped forward wearing a mask over part of his face.

The male, who had a gun, put Wareham in a head-lock “and said, ‘Give me the … weed,’ and he didn’t finish his sentence” before she heard gunshots, she said.

“I turned over to him, and he said, ‘Baby, have I just been shot?’ And I said, ‘We need to go. We need go go now.'”

The car went in reverse, and Wareham had a sort of seizure. “I just held onto Brandon, and we ended up hitting a telephone pole,” she said. She saw the shooter go around the back of the house, but she did not see anyone else, she said.

Winlock, who faces the same charges as Sherman, will be tried separately. Sullivan was also charged with aggravated murder and aggravated robbery but pleaded guilty in November to a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter and aggravated robbery and is expected to testify in Sherman’s trial.

Sullivan could get about 23 years in prison when he is sentenced, but prosecutors will recommend he get 14 years if he cooperates with prosecutors. His attorney will ask for10 years in prison. Girls ages 15 and 17 are also charged with complicity to commit murder and aggravated robbery.

erunyan@tribtoday.com