Staff photo / Ed Runyan Detective Michael Lambert of the Youngstown Police Department points Wednesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to information on a television monitor about evidence related to cellphones in the 2018 murder of three people on Pasadena Avenue in Youngstown. At left is Aaron Meikle, assistant county prosecutor.

YOUNGSTOWN — The triple-murder trial of Taquashon Ray and Shainquon Sharpe was sidetracked Wednesday by illness and will be disrupted again today by snow and ice in the forecast.

The trial is scheduled to resume Friday.

Aaron Meikle, a county assistant prosecutor, started to question Youngstown police detective Mike Lambert on Wednesday morning about information obtained from cellphones connected to the case. Lambert obtained data showing where the phones were physically located at the time of the Nov. 7, 2018, triple murder in front of 702 Pasadena Ave. on the South Side.

Killed were Edward Morris, 21; his 3-month-old son, Tariq Morris; and the baby’s mother, Valarcia Blair, 19. Morris died at the scene. Blair and the baby died later at the hospital.

The case recessed for lunch after a short time. When it reconvened, Judge Maureen Sweeney announced that Meikle had become ill — not with COVID-19 — but he would not be back that day, and she was sending the jury home early.

She had earlier told jurors they would not be reporting to the courthouse today because of predictions of snow and ice.

DNA COLLECTION

Early Wednesday, lead detective Ron Barber of the Youngstown Police Department resumed his testimony and admitted during cross examination by attorney Mark Lavelle, who represents Sharpe, that Barber should have collected a DNA swab from Ray. He said he did not initially believe it was necessary because Ray admitted to being at the scene during the shooting.

Police collected a DNA swab from Sharpe after the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation told Barber “usable DNA” was on a shell casing found at the scene. The DNA results indicated a one in 8,000 chance that the DNA belonged to anyone except Sharpe, assuming that the 8,000 individuals are not related.

Ohio BCI scientist Andrew Sawin testified Friday he could not say what the effect would be on the results if Sharpe and Ray were blood relatives because the “statistical model that we have doesn’t account for relatedness.”

Barber said the reason he did not feel the need to collect Ray’s DNA was that Ray admitted to being in a car left behind at the murder scene and being present at the time of the killing. Ray did not admit to being part of the shooting, only that the shooting took place behind the car in which he was sitting.

“Based on his admission to being in the car and at the scene, to me the … value of that DNA at the time for Mr. Ray, I didn’t need to collect it,” Barber said.

But Lavelle pointed out that the DNA that linked Sharpe to the scene came from bullet shell casings, not the inside of the car.

Lavelle then asked Barber about testimony that Sawin had asked last year for DNA from Ray to be submitted to the lab, and it never was. Barber testified that he never knew about the request, but: “It should have been submitted.”

When questioned by defense attorney Lou DeFabio later, however, DeFabio seemed to be making the opposite point. DeFabio represents Ray.

DeFabio also asked Barber if there was any reason to collect Ray’s DNA because there was “no other usable DNA on any other piece of evidence in this case” except the DNA associated with Sharpe and shell casings.

“No,” Barber said.

“There is nothing else to test is there, from the evidence you found?” DeFabio asked.

“No,” Barber said.

PASADENA SCENE

Morris died at the scene. Blair and the baby died later at the hospital.

Testimony Wednesday indicated that a person who stayed at 702 Pasadena Ave. was arrested on drug and weapons charges the next day in a car outside of the home in the same area where the triple killings occurred.

Lavelle asked Barber whether he interviewed the man arrested the next day, and Barber said he did not. Lavelle apparently was suggesting that the man arrested the next day might have been responsible for the killings because officers got to the scene so quickly yet did not see any suspects.

“You knew that your officers had arrived at the scene within literally seconds from the time of the shooting, right?”

“Yes,” Barber answered.

“What’s the reason you didn’t want to go into that house?” Lavelle asked of 702 Pasadena.

“Because the crime scene was outside,” Barber said. “I have nothing that links him to the crime.”

Lavelle countered, “You have nothing that links him to the crime except that he is a known drug dealer who lived at the very location where the shooting occurred and he was there with his unique car, was there seconds before the shooting occurred. Other than that, you have nothing that links him, correct?”

“Right,” Barber answered.

Rob Andrews, county assistant prosecutor, asked Barber if he would have had “any legal basis for” for asking a judge for a search warrant for the house at 702 Pasadena, and Barber said no.

Lavelle also later asked Barber if he can explain why his partner in the triple murder investigation, detective Michael Cox, obtained a search warrant for the man’s car, but nobody sought a search warrant for the house.

“So you’ve got a legal basis to get into the car, but you couldn’t come up with any reason to get in the house?” Lavelle asked. Barber answered that was correct.

All three victims were found shot inside a car found in the devil strip on front of the home.