Family members of Sierra and Leroy Morris speak to Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains after John W. Bruner III was sentenced Wednesday in the shooting deaths. From left are Erica Pegues; Donna Morris, mother of Sierra Morris and wife of Leroy Morris; Linda Long; and Noel Long. At right is assistant Prosecutor Jennifer McLaughlin. Staff photo / Ed Runyan

YOUNGSTOWN — “Overwhelming evidence” showed that John W. Bruner killed Sierra Morris, 25, and her father, Leroy Morris, 58, on Feb. 29 at the Morris’s West Judson Avenue home, defense attorney David Betras said Wednesday.

As a result, Bruner, 31, took Mahoning County prosecutors’ offer and pleaded guilty Wednesday to aggravated murder, murder and other charges, and received the agreed-upon sentence of 41 years to life in prison.

Sierra Morris was the mother of Bruner’s 5-year-old daughter. She and Bruner had been arguing at the time of the killing over child custody and other issues. Bruner, who had no previous criminal record, originally is from Warren.

Prosecutors considered re-indicting Bruner on charges that could have led to the death penalty, Betras said. Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains later confirmed that is true, but the Morris family felt the plea agreement was a better outcome, Gains said.

Jennifer McLaughlin, asssistant county prosecutor, said the benefit of the plea agreement is that it will give the family closure “to know the sentence is going to be in place, that we will not be dealing with years and years of appeals.”

Betras said Bruner did not want to “gamble with his life” and risk getting the death penalty.

Before receiving his sentence from Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, Bruner apologized to the Morris family. “And to my daughter, I love her, always have and always will,” he said of Jordyn, now 6.

‘SMACK HIM’

Bruner was speaking to Judge Krichbaum and those in the courtroom through a video monitor from the Mahoning County jail instead of in person.

When Donna Morris, mother of Sierra Morris, and wife of Leroy Morris, heard the comment, she got very angry, she said later. At one point, the girl was sitting just a few feet from where Bruner shot her mother and grandfather, Donna Morris said.

Prosecutors said Sierra was shot 20 times. Donna said Leroy was shot four times.

When Bruner said he loved his daughter, “I wanted to reach through the TV and smack him,” Donna said. “How can you say that? He took her mother’s life right in front of her eyes,” Donna said.

Donna said Sierra and Leroy were painting a room inside the house and had left the front door open for ventilation when Bruner entered with a gun. Bruner shot Sierra first, then shot Leroy as he tried to stop him, Donna said.

McLaughlin said Bruner’s girlfriend, Courtney Hall, 30, of Akron dropped Bruner off at the Morris home and went to Conroy’s Party Shop to wait.

Bruner “may not have known” Leroy Morris was going to be there because Leroy had recently moved back into the home, McLaughlin said.

Donna told The Vindicator in an earlier interview that Sierra and Bruner had their ups and downs over the past five years, and Bruner had threatened Sierra in the couple of weeks before her death because he found out she’d gone out to a club.

CHILD SAW ALL

Six-year-old Jordyn witnessed both killings, McLaughlin said, and “runs back to the bedroom and she tells her grandma Donna that ‘Daddy John is shooting.’ They hide in the bedroom and call 911,” McLaughlin said.

After the shootings, Bruner got back in the car with Hall, and they went back to their home in Akron.

“He instructs Courtney to get rid of the clothing he was wearing,” McLaughlin said.

Hall later was charged in Youngstown Municipal Court with complicity to aggravated murder, but her case has been pending before a Mahoning County grand jury since March.

Bruner lied to police about where he was, saying the GPS on the Brinks truck he drove for work would show where he was, but the GPS was turned off, McLaughlin said.

Bruner’s cellphone indicated he was in Youngstown.

He told Hall from jail to “hide the gun,” McLaughlin said. Police later recovered the gun.

Donna had a niece read a victim-impact statement for her during the hearing. It said Bruner “didn’t care how his actions would affect his own child’s life by taking away her mother and watching him commit such a vicious crime. Sierra and Leroy were full of life and love, and Jordyn loved them tremendously,” it said.

erunyan@tribtoday.com