YOUNGSTOWN — A hearing was held Monday to determine whether a witness to a Dec. 19, 2020, armed robbery should be allowed to testify to being able to identify the robber after looking at store surveillance video and photos of Gregory D. Richardson II, 36.

Richardson is accused of firing a gun inside the Dollar General store on Glenwood Avenue, getting money from the cash register and fleeing. The robber was wearing a winter-type hat and a facemask, said the witness, a store employee.

The witness said the man — like Richardson — had tattoos “all over his face.”

She could see parts of the robber’s face and neck and is “100 percent sure” the robber was Richardson, she testified. Richardson is her niece’s uncle, and she has known him for about 20 years, she said.

She did not tell police when they initially investigated the robbery Dec. 19 that the robber was Richardson, she said. It was because she didn’t know if it was him at that time and “I didn’t want to accuse somebody if I wasn’t sure.”

But she spent hours looking at photos of Richardson on Facebook after the robbery and even asked for and received photos of Richardson from her niece, she testified.

A couple days later, Youngstown police detective George Anderson showed her a photo of Richardson and asked her if that’s the man who robbed the store, and she said it is, the witness said.

The witness to the robbery and Anderson testified before Judge Anthony D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. The judge will rule later on Richardson’s request to eliminate the testimony.

Defense attorney Lou DiFabio argued that showing a photo of just one person to a witness and asking the witness if that is the person who committed a crime violates police department policy and should be ruled inadmissible.

Anderson testified that he thought showing the single photo was OK because another Youngstown police officer had already identified Richardson as the robber through surveillance video, and Anderson had also viewed the surveillance video and knew Richardson, Anderson said.

Richardson was indicted in March in the Family Dollar robbery, but his indictment also includes charges of aggravated murder and murder in the killing of Jolanda Murry, 27, three days later as Murry was riding in a car on Halleck Street on the North Side.