Staff photo / Ed Runyan.... Attorney Dave Betras holds an exhibit so that witness Ashley Pratt can see it during her testimony Wednesday in the aggravated murder trial of Johnny Serrano in the Sept. 18, 2022, killing of Yarnell Green as he walked along West Federal Street in downtown Youngstown

YOUNGSTOWN — Ashley Pratt, who was the girlfriend of Yarnell Green Jr. when he was shot seven times and killed as he and Pratt walked down West Federal Street downtown early Sept. 18, 2022, was the key witness on the first day of testimony in the aggravated murder trial of Johnny Serrano Jr.

Pratt, 24, said an altercation took place inside O’Donold’s Irish Pub on West Federal as she and Green were heading toward the front door exit to smoke.

She said she saw Serrano “grab Yarnell and whisper something into his ear, and after that Yarnell got upset.” She said she saw Green “leaning in toward Johnny after Yarnell was upset about it, and he said, ‘We could take this outside,'” she testified. She does not know what else was said.

Security personnel told them “we had to leave, so we were on our way out,” she said. They walked into a gated area in front of the bar and spent some time there. They later exited the gated area onto Federal Street toward Hazel Street, she said. There were two other female friends with them, who were behind her and Green.

Pratt said as they got to Hazel Street, she could “see a foot behind a wall just standing there, and I thought that was very weird. As I looked, I saw jeans and I heard gun shots,” she said. There were eight shots, she said, under questioning by Marty Hume, assistant county prosecutor.

She said the shoe looked like a “Jordan” “name brand shoe,” and the person was wearing light-colored jeans, but she did not see the person’s face and did not know who the shooter was. She was close by Green.

When Hume asked if she saw Green reach for something, she answered, “I was next to him the whole time. I did not see that.” She also did not see Green “lift his shirt,” she responded to the next question. She did not “see him reach for a gun,” she said.

“As soon as we heard the shots, he said ‘Someone’s shooting’ and ‘I was shot,’ and fell right to the ground, and that’s when I got on my phone and called for an ambulance and police.” Jurors heard the 911 call, and a woman’s hysterical voice could be heard asking for help over and over and not really answering the call taker’s questions most of the time.

The first person in uniform arrived, and “I said help me, help, because it was not good.” When ambulance personnel arrived, they moved Green to the street and started CPR, then put Green in the ambulance. She was taken to the police station to talk to police.

“I live in a bubble of fear,” she said of the aftermath of the killing. “I’m afraid every day. I don’t know who’s going to be waiting around that corner.” When she was asked if Green “did anything that brought that upon himself,” Pratt said “No.”

Serrano, 24, of Campbell and Struthers, faces charges of aggravated murder, murder, involuntary manslaughter and felonious assault in the case.

Green, 32, was the boyfriend of Alexis Schneider, mother of Rowan Sweeney, at the time Rowan, 4, was shot to death Sept. 21, 2020, in a home on Perry Street in Struthers. Green and Schneider were among the four adults in the home who also were shot but survived.

Dave Betras, one of Serrano’s attorneys, asked if she and Green were in love, and Pratt agreed they were and answered that she has a tattoo for him on her hand. She got it the day after he was killed. She said she did not know Green had a gun that night, but she knew he carried one at times.

When Betras asked Pratt about Schneider, Pratt agreed that Schneider was in the bar the night Green was killed, and she was with some people, but not Serrano.

During opening statements, Hume said Green was killed after Green’s party and Serrano and several people with him were both ordered to leave the bar because of a confrontation. But Serrano and the people in his party did not continue from the back door to get into their vehicle in the back lot.

Instead, Serrano walked toward Hazel Street and waited more than two minutes for Green to arrive and committed an “assassination.”

As Pratt’s testimony continued, Betras asked Pratt whether Pratt saw Serrano grab Green’s arm or not. “It wasn’t Johnny Serrano, correct?” Betras said. “It was Johnny Serrano,” she said.

Then Betras got louder as he asked Pratt why she did not mention Serrano in any way when she spoke to detectives shortly after the shooting. After an objection to Betras’ questioning, Judge Anthony Donofrio asked Betras to “tone it down.”

Then Betras asked Pratt about a second interview she gave to detectives Sept. 28, 2022, and Pratt acknowledged she did mention the confrontation between Green and Serrano at that time, even though she did not mention it in the first interview. By the time of the second interview, Serrano had been charged in the case, she agreed.

Betras asked if it is true that Pratt was “not really looking at Yarnell as you were walking together sort of side by side, right?”

After one confusing exchange, Pratt stated “I was definitely paying attention to Yarnell.”

Betras asked Pratt if she remembered telling a Youngstown detective “I don’t remember what Yarnell was doing.” She said she did not remember telling the detective that.

One of the other women who was walking with Green as he was shot testified, but she said she did not see what he was doing because she was behind him.

Also testifying was Dr. Elizabeth Mooney, a forensic pathologist with the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office. She conducted Green’s autopsy, describing the injuries the seven gunshots caused — damage to his heart, kidneys, liver and lung. She said several of the gunshots were likely to be fatal, and he would not have lived more than “minutes, probably seconds.”

Green’s toxicology results indicate the presence of alcohol in his system measuring 0.09, an amount slightly higher than the legal limit in Ohio to drive of 0.08.

His death was ruled a homicide as a result of multiple gunshot wounds, Mooney said.

In opening statements, Betras said testimony will indicate that “It was Yarnell Green who went for his gun” and that a man at the bar with Serrano spoke to Schneider there, and it enraged Green.

The trial resumes this morning.

erunyan@vindy.com