Staff photo / Ed Runyan Luis Johnson, left, who is on trial in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, is shown next to his attorney, Jim Schoren, during Johnson’s trial Wednesday. Johnson, 24, is charged with attempted murder and felonious assault in a nonfatal Oct. 12, 2020, shooting on Fairfax Street on the East Side. The victim was seriously injured.

YOUNGSTOWN — Detective Michael Cox testified Wednesday in the attempted murder trial of Luis Johnson, telling jurors he found a burgundy Lincoln MKZ belonging to Tyree Robinson at the Fairview Gardens apartments in Warren one day after a shooting for which Robinson is charged.

The trial is in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, but testimony wrapped up Wednesday. Jury deliberations will take place today.

The shooting took place Oct. 12, 2020, at a home on Fairfax Street on the East Side. Tevin T. Gregory, 25, suffered serious injuries but survived. Robinson and Luis M. Johnson, 24, are charged with attempted murder and felonious assault, but only Johnson is on trial this week. Robinson will be tried later.

The car has a distinguishable front grille that was captured on surveillance video police obtained from the neighborhood near the home where the shooting took place, Cox testified.

During the investigation, Cox spoke to Gregory’s girlfriend, and she expressed concern that Johnson, her ex-boyfriend, was involved in the shooting, which took place at her house. She and Johnson have a child together, Cox said.

She also told Cox she believed Johnson’s friend, Robinson, of Girard, drove a car like the one involved in the shooting. Cox searched vehicles in a state database and found out that Robinson owned a 2007 burgundy Lincoln MKZ. The vehicle was found in the Fairview Gardens apartments in Warren and was towed as part of the investigation, Cox said.

She also told Cox that the day before the shooting that Johnson had communicated with her “that he wanted her back and there was no one else who could treat her the way he does.”

Two days after the shooting, Johnson’s mother came to the Youngstown Police Department and told Cox and another detective that the shooting involved her son, Luis.

She said Luis “admitted to being involved with the shooting” and that Tyree also was involved, Cox said.

The woman said the reason she came to the police was she was concerned about Luis because Luis was upset about the breakup with his former girlfriend, the woman who was now involved with Gregory, and that Luis did not like Gregory being around his child.

She told Cox that a few weeks earlier, “she found what she believed to be a suicide note,” and he was admitted to the hospital for a mental health evaluation, Cox said.

Cox also spoke to Payton Mraz, a friend of Johnson, at the police station Oct. 20, 2020, and she said Johnson stayed with her overnight the morning of the shooting.

She later changed her story and said Johnson did not stay with her.

Johnson took the stand, telling the jury he was sleeping at his grandmother’s house on Catalina Avenue on the North Side the morning of the shooting, and his mother woke him up while talking to Johnson’s former girlfriend on the phone about Gregory being shot. Johnson testified that his mother misinterpreted a poem he had written to be a suicide note.

He said he told police he was with Mraz the early morning of the shooting, “which was not true. The reason I said that though is because I have never been in trouble with the law before.”

He added, “I’ve never been involved in something like this, so I just wanted to get as far away from this as possible, so I did ask Payton to say that.”

Johnson, who is free on bond, said he currently works for a cellphone company but also sold new and used cars at a local car dealership from 2017 to 2020.