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WARREN -- A Liberty man was sent to prison Friday for an period up to 20 1/2 years after he changed his plea to guilty on a reduced charge of involuntary manslaughter -- plus four other charges -- in the August 2020 slaying of his roommate.
The plea by Felix R. Olverson, 57, formerly of Keefer Road, headed off a scheduled aggravated murder trial that was to begin Monday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
The plea deal also saw a relative of fatal shooting victim, 31-year-old William B. Ross, removed from the courthouse because he was angrily opposing the reduced charges.
Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Becker said the victim's father agreed to the plea bargain for Olverson.
"The father of the victim was quite a gentleman and was satisfied this would be a good resolution to this matter," Becker said.
Ross' father declined to speak in court, but a written victim impact statement was submitted by Ross' paternal grandmother.
Before pleading guilty to the charges of involuntary manslaughter with gun specification, having weapons under restrictions, receiving stolen property, possessing a defaced firearm and tampering with evidence, Olverson turned to the victim's father and said he was sorry for shooting his son.
Becker said Ross died after being shot one time from a 9mm Ruger that Olverson said he purchased from a "crack addict in Youngstown." The shooting happened on the porch of the Keefer Road home.
Becker said proving the aggravated murder at trial would have been difficult because the defendant only took one shot at the victim, and the defense had phone evidence of threats made to the defendant by the victim. Becker said state law has been changed so that the prosecution has to disprove the state of self-defense existed.
"The victim and defendant were involved in a violent relationship," Becker said.
Olverson's daughter told the newspaper shortly after the shooting 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."
Defense attorney Mary Ellen Ditchey declined to comment after the plea hearing.
Olverson has been in custody in the Trumbull County jail since the day after the Aug. 30, 2020, fatal shooting. Becker said the quick work of Liberty and Howland police helped in the arrest. Olverson, after the shooting, wandered in the wooded area near his home, but returned to his home to turn himself in.
Olverson was convicted of a felony in the 1980s in Mahoning County, Becker said.
The defendant was given an additional three years in prison because a gun was used in the commission of the crime.
If a jury had found him guilty of aggravated murder, Olverson could have faced a maximum life without parole sentence. As it is, Becker said Olverson now will have to serve about 15 years before being eligible for parole.
"It's an unfortunate situation. One man is dead and another's life is ruined because of another senseless act of gun violence," Becker said.