Staff photos / Ed Runyan Kimonie Bryant, right, talks to one of his attorneys after his hearing ended Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. He’s charged with aggravated murder in the September 2020 shooting death of Rowan Sweeney, 4, in Struthers.

YOUNGSTOWN — The latest hearing Monday in the Sept. 21, 2020, killing of 4-year-old Rowan Sweeney suggested that the death-penalty case is mired in complications that could delay a resolution far into the future.

Judge Anthony D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court listened to one reason after another why defendant Kimonie Bryant currently has no trial date and co-defendant Brandon Crump’s January trial date is likely to be moved back at least a couple of months.

Rowan was shot to death in a home on Perry Street in Struthers in what prosecutors have called a robbery that turned into a murder, with four adults also being shot but surviving. Among the survivors is Rowan’s mother, Alexis Schneider.

When the judge advised the assistant prosecutors and defense attorneys — again — to meet with each other to ensure that prosecutors have provided the defense with all of the witness interviews, police reports and scientific evidence in the case, defense attorney Lynn Maro gave a stark assessment.

“Everything I did in eight months has to be done over,” she said of organizing of evidence that prosecutors have provided over about the past year.

Maro was talking about a problem discovered weeks earlier: The prosecutors renumbered and renamed many of the evidence files provided to the attorneys for Bryant and Crump, and provided it all a second time.

Maro said she needs an “index” to tell her what the old numbers and names were compared to what the new page numbers and files names are — or else everything she reviewed earlier will have to be reviewed all over.

At the last hearing for Crump, Lou DeFabio, one of Crump’s attorneys, raised the same issues, saying it will take time for him to review the 2,400 pages of renumbered and renamed evidence and figure out whether prosecutors have provided him with everything.

GET REAL

But D’Apolito was not taking no for an answer Monday.

He has asked the attorneys multiple times to have a meeting with each other and talk about the evidence face to face so he can be assured that the pretrial evidence has been provided and schedule realistic trial dates for Bryant and Crump.

D’Apolito had asked the defense and prosecution a month ago to hold a meeting among themselves, and it did not happen. On Monday, he asked again that they meet before the next hearing in November, but answers by Juhasz and Maro suggested that also might not happen.

Juhasz said having a meeting right now would be “unproductive,” and Maro went on to discuss her concerns about folders and flle names and the possibility that “subfolders” might not have been provided.

Then the judge went a step further, saying: “I’m going to order you to meet,” adding, “We’re pretty far into this (case) to not even have (evidence sharing by prosecutors) complete.”

A secretary with the prosecutor’s office Monday said one reason it’s more complicated to provide the evidence is that Bryant, 25, was an adult at the time of the killing, but Crump was a juvenile.

As a result, Crump’s case was bound over to the grand jury many months after Bryant’s case.

THE SHOOTER?

Furthermore, McLaughlin told the judge two weeks ago that witnesses’ statements in the case appear to be “shifting” as to the identity of the shooter. Police and prosecutors initially said Bryant was the shooter, but witnesses now appear to be identifying Crump as the shooter, she said.

Perhaps because of the death penalty-level cases, other complicated issues have also arisen, such as whether the judge should approve a defense motion asking that an independent expert be allowed to witness the analysis of DNA evidence.

The state crime lab does not allow anyone to come into its facility to witness DNA analysis. And an independent, Virginia company that carries out DNA analysis is not allowing an outside witness to observe either, McLaughlin told the judge.

So D’Apolito said he would order the company to allow the outside observer. But McLaughlin questioned whether an Ohio judge could order a Virginia company to do something.

Juhasz then said the private company’s rules state that the company will honor “court orders.”

When the hearing was over, the judge told the attorneys: “You’re going to be busy. I have a lot of homework for you guys.”

Bryant originally had a September trial date, and Crump’s is set for January.

The judge has been holding monthly hearings for Bryant and Crump, but last month’s Bryant hearing was canceled. D’Apolito said he will starting holding two hearings per month in the case starting in January.

The U.S. Marshals Service is still looking for Andre S. McCoy Jr., a third man indicted on aggravated murder and other charges in the Sweeney killing. McCoy, 21, of Redondo Road, also could face the death penalty if convicted. Initially, officials said McCoy suffered serious injuries in the shootings and was receiving medical care. After he did not appear for his arraignment months ago, prosecutors said they did not know where he was.

erunyan@vindy.com