Staff photos / Ed Runyan Captions are at top of story Attorney John Laczko, left, sits with defendant Brian Donlow Jr. during a suppression hearing in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in November 2019.

YOUNGSTOWN — Two men go on trial Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, charged in the June 2018 killing of Brandon Wylie, 30, near the playground of the Plaza View apartment complex on the East Side.

It’s the case that produced earlier testimony that defendant Brian Donlow Jr., 25, was one of “four Brian Donlows” a witness knew — but she identified him from a photo lineup that included the defendant and three other Donlows. She identified the defendant as the man she saw at the apartment complex that day.

She also said she knew him from seeing him around the East Side.

But Donlow’s attorney, John Laczko, sought to suppress the identification from trial. He argued that showing a witness a lineup of four men who all have the name Brian Donlow “or a variation of the name” and asking the witness to identify the suspect did not follow established policies for how to use photo lineups.

Judge Anthony D’Apolito, who will preside over the trial, later denied Laczko’s attempt to suppress the identification.

“There were four Brian Donlows or a variation of the name,” now-retired Youngstown police detective Doug Bobovnyik testified during a hearing in November.

“To my best recollection, they were all half-brothers.”

In addition to the defendant, there was a Brian Donlow III, Brian Trevon Fredrick Donlow and Byron Brian Bryson Donlow, Bobovnyik said.

Donlow’s co-defendant is Stephon Hopkins, 23. Both are charged with aggravated murder, murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm. If convicted, each could get a life prison sentence.

The trial is likely to include video footage from the apartment complex showing a man in a white shirt firing a gun multiple times in the direction of the surveillance camera. Law enforcement officials say the shots killed Wylie, who is not visible in the video.

It shows a man shooting, then a second man walking or jogging through the area, apparently approaching the victim momentarily, then both men leaving the scene.

The video of the shooting could be significant in the case. Though it is not clear enough to provide an identification of the two men, it shows the clothes they were wearing, characteristics of their hair and relative height and weight.

It also gives provides a glimpse into the striking reality of homicide — this one and perhaps gun violence in general. It shows a man appearing to kill another man nonchalantly, possibly in a way that was borrowed from video games or movies.

Another camera angle shows Wylie and two men earlier, walking through the East Side apartment complex at about 11:50 p.m., prior to the murder.

Michael Yacavone and Dawn Cantalamessa of the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s office are prosecuting the case.