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YOUNGSTOWN -- Jurors in the vehicular homicide trial of a Canfield man spent a lot of their day in court Friday viewing videos.
A key piece of evidence -- a parking lot video of two men getting into a white Mercedes SUV -- was shown as an agent for the state investigative unit testified the man getting into the driver's side was the defendant Michael Malvasi II.
Malvasi, 30, of Canfield, is on trial for six felony charges connected to the Nov. 18, 2017, fatal accident on Shields Road in Canfield Township that killed 23-year-old Ryan Lanzo.
Testimony for the state will continue Monday. Jurors heard Friday from a list of witnesses that included agent Joe Chamberlain of the Ohio Investigative Unit for the Department of Public Safety.
Chamberlain told jurors he was assigned to go to the Blue Wolf Tavern and Suzie's Dogs and Drafts, the two nightlife establishments in Boardman that Malvasi and Lanzo visited just before the accident. The agent said he obtained security videos for the night of Nov. 17 and early morning hours of Nov. 18 from both places, which showed both Malvasi and Lanzo drinking alcohol.
"I was trying to locate him (Malvasi in the video) to see how much alcohol he consumed," Chamberlain told assistant Prosecutor Michael Yacovone.
During cross examination, defense attorney John Juhasz questioned Chamberlain. The time stamp on the Suzie's video was 14 minutes behind real time, and he asked the agent how this discrepancy came about.
The agent couldn't answer how the timing system got that way.
The final video played for jurors showed the two men exiting the bar, going into the parking lot and getting into the Mercedes, which was owned by Malvasi's father. Chamberlain said another state's witness, a woman who had been at the bar with the two men, helped him with identification of the two men in the videos.
He said he identified Lanzo as the man getting into the passenger side with Malvasi getting into the SUV on the driver's side. The time was determined to be 2:38 a.m., about eight minutes before the time another state witness said the fatal crash occurred.
This information would contradict the opening statement given by Malvasi on Tuesday, in which he said the victim Lanzo was driving at the time of the accident, which occurred on the S curve of Shields Road between Raccoon Road and state Route 46 in Canfield Township.
Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper Eric J. Carroll testified that a resident of Shields Road near the S curve told him he heard the crash about 2:46 a.m.
Carroll and former trooper Lydia Jordan both testified they had responded to the St. Elizabeth Urgent Care Center, where Lanzo was taken by Malvasi's father in a Toyota. Both testified to processing the Toyota for evidence. The two troopers also went later on Nov. 18 to photograph and get evidence from the Mercedes.
Earlier in the trial, prosecutors stated Malvasi was the driver and moved Lanzo's body from the accident scene after he had walked home to get a second vehicle. Malvasi's father then took Lanzo to the urgent care center in Austintown, where he was pronounced dead about 4 a.m.
Photographs of the Mercedes showed heavy damage to the left front side of the vehicle and damage to the passenger side of the windshield. Carroll said the vehicle's moonroof was broken, but he could not say if it was caused by the accident.
Among the evidence shown to jurors were 18 photos of the wrecked Mercedes, a black knit hat found on the driver's side of the Mercedes, parts of the airbags and the interior moonroof cover.
Under cross examination, Carroll couldn't say if the moonroof cover was removed by investigators or had torn off during the accident.
Carroll also testified to obtaining security videos from a business at the corner of state Route 46 and Shields that showed the intersection, which is about half a mile from the accident site. Jurors were shown videos of cars passing through the intersection just shortly after the accident time. Again, Yuhasz questioned the validity of the time of the videos since Carroll said the video's time was more than an hour off from the actual time.
Malvasi is charged with two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, two counts of failure to stop after an accident, tampering with evidence and driving under the influence.
After the lunch break, Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court excused one of the four alternate jurors. Prosecutors said they should be completed with their case by Tuesday, but it was not known if Juhasz will call any defense witnesses.
gvogrin@tribtoday.com