YOUNGSTOWN — Mark Winlock Jr., who was repeatedly identified during the trial of a co-defendant as the shooter in the killing of Brandon Wareham, 18, of Austintown, pleaded guilty Friday to murder.

Winlock, 19, of Deer Creek Court in Austintown, was scheduled for trial Monday on aggravated murder and other charges but pleaded guilty to the lesser murder charge and will get 18 years to life in prison when he is sentenced later.

Witnesses testified in Michael Sherman’s January trial that Winlock fired the shots that killed Wareham in the driveway of a home on Rhoda Avenue on the West Side.

Sherman took the case to trial and was convicted of aggravated murder and aggravated robbery and will get a life prison sentence. Judge Anthony D’Apolito could choose a minimum prison sentence for Sherman of 23, 28 or 33 years. The minimum sentence for Sherman’s aggravated murder conviction is 20 years, but a specification that a gun was used adds three more years.

Prosecutors said they agreed to allow Winlock to plead guilty to the lesser offense to prevent Wareham’s family from having to go through a second trial. Wareham’s family agreed with the plea agreement, prosecutors said.

Testimony during Sherman’s trial indicated several teens who gathered at a home on Rhoda Avenue March 2, 2018, decided they would rob marijuana dealers by using fake money. They were successful once March 2 and unsuccessful the second time.

They decided to try again the next day, contacting additional people, including Wareham, who arrived at the home, pulled into the driveway near the house and was met by a girl, 14. Her job was to distract Wareham while Winlock, Sherman and Daniel Sullivan II, 19, approached the car to take Wareham’s marijuana.

Sullivan testified that Winlock was first to get to the car, and he pointed a gun at Wareham, who tried to back up his car and “pull off.” But Winlock shot Wareham. Sullivan and Sherman were near Winlock at the time. They all fled.

Sullivan took a plea agreement that required him to testify against his co-defendants in exchange for a lighter sentence. Prosecutors will recommend that Sullivan get 14 years in prison.

The girl who distracted Wareham and the girl who contacted Wareham on social media to ask him to come to the home to sell marijuana were both juveniles at the time. They both reached plea agreements requiring them to testify at the trial in exchange for reduced time in juvenile detention.

One of the girls, now 18, is expected to be in juvenile detention for five years.

erunyan@tribtoday.com