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WARREN -- An aggravated murder trial that was scheduled to begin Monday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court is rescheduled to April 11.
Felix R. Olverson, 56, formerly of Keefer Road, Liberty, appeared with his attorney Mary Ellen Ditchey before Judge Peter J. Kontos, to settle on a new trial date. Prosecutors said the trial had to be delayed because of the unavailability of a witness.
Olverson has been in the Trumbull County jail, pending the posting of a $1 million bond, since the day after the Aug. 30, 2020, fatal shooting of 31-year-old William B. Ross.
Olverson is charged with aggravated murder with a firearm specification, having weapons under restrictions, receiving stolen property, possessing a defaced firearm and tampering with evidence.
Ross, 31, died after being shot in the chest on the front porch of the Keefer Road address in Liberty shortly before 11 p.m. Aug. 30. Olverson had walked away from the scene with his German Shepherd dog and after a police search of the area was apprehended by authorities in the back yards of Keefer Road.
Liberty police Chief Toby Meloro said the shooting may have resulted from a disagreement.
Olverson's daughter had told the newspaper shortly after his arrest that her father and Ross had been fighting for a time. The disagreements intensified in the month before the shooting, after Ross had broken up with Olverson's former stepdaughter. They had all lived at the Keefer Road home for about two years.
The daughter said things came to a head at the end of August 2020 after her father "was beat up."
Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Becker said if Olverson is convicted of all charges, the maximum penalty would be life in prison without the chance for parole. Olverson was convicted of a felony in the 1980s in Mahoning County, Becker said. A stolen firearm was used as the murder weapon, a report states.
gvogrin@tribtoday.com