Judge Anthony Donofrio is shown during the murder trial of Larenz Rhodes he presided over last month.

YOUNGSTOWN — The jurors who decided the first jury trial in Mahoning County in more than five months told Judge Anthony Donofrio they were “comfortable” with the steps taken to protect them from COVID-19.

Donofrio said he spoke with the jurors after they delivered their verdict Aug. 25 in the Larenz Rhodes murder trial.

“The jurors … said they were comfortable with what we did to protect them from the spread of COVID-19,” the judge said last week.

Donofrio, his staff and other county officials had clear, plastic barriers installed throughout Donofrio’s courtroom to separate everyone in the courtroom, including the jurors.

Bailiff Andrea Paventi sanitized the witness stand after each witness, and masks were worn where necessary.

But to allow the attorneys to see the faces of the witnesses, they were advised they could remove their masks while testifying. Attorneys were advised of the same thing to aid in understanding what they were saying.

Donofrio acknowledged jury selection, which was carried out in another judge’s courtroom because it is larger, was not easy. But once opening statements were given and testimony began, the “trial proceeded very smoothly,” Donofrio said.

Jury selection took longer than the judge anticipated, and the number of potential jurors called for the trial — 31 — was barely enough.

The trial involved a high-profile case — the murder of Crystal Hernandez, 23, at her McBride Street apartment. She was shot to death while holding her young son during the last of three shootings and retaliatory shootings Jan. 24, 2019, involving her boyfriend.

Almost no members of the public attended, and only a few members of Hernandez’s family and a few attorneys, plus reporters, were in the courtroom.

The amount of space in the courtroom would not have allowed for many more spectators, but Donofrio said he was prepared to handle that if it had occurred.

County personnel set up an audio video system that would have been immediately deployed if more spectators had come to view the trial, Donofrio said.

Two rooms were available for spectators not far from the courtroom. A live feed of the proceedings would have been played in the two extra rooms.

“It was on deck” and could have been deployed with little delay, the judge said of the equipment.

Donofrio is scheduled to have another jury trial Sept. 21 involving a city man, now 18, accused of killing a Farrell, Pa., teen. It happened during what police said was a robbery in a vacant Sherwood Avenue home March 22, 2018.

Antonio E. Davis is accused of killing Damon Marinoff, 15. Police said Marinoff was trying to sell phones over the internet. He was lured to the Sherwood Avenue location by someone who said they would buy the phones. Instead, he was robbed and shot.

Donofrio last week ruled against a defense request to suppress evidence in the case, saying that a Youngstown police detective did not comply with “the letter of the law” regarding a photo array he showed to a witness, but “there was substantial compliance.”

The array is a series of photos of various individuals shown to a witness to see if the witness identifies a suspect. The witness identified Davis but not the first time he looked at the photos, according to court documents. The interactions between the witness and the detective were videotaped and can be shown during the trial, Donofrio noted.

Trumbull County has not had a jury trial yet, but Packard Music Hall is one option being considered to hold one. Ian Payne of Weathersfield was to go on trial Aug. 10, but he pleaded guilty to the shooting death of his roommate, Zachary Wiczen, in late July.

Walter Toles of Braceville was supposed to go on trial Aug. 17 in the stabbing death of Marlon Smith in February, but he pleaded guilty in late July.