Suspect in Rowan Sweeney murder case gets new pretrial
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YOUNGSTOWN -- Brandon Crump, who goes on trial Feb. 5 in the aggravated murder of 4-year-old Rowan Sweeney, will have at least one more pretrial hearing before then.
A pretrial hearing took place privately among the attorneys Wednesday, and various administrative matters were discussed, court personnel said.
But they also agreed to hold one more pretrial hearing at 1:30 p.m. Jan. 25 before Judge Anthony D'Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to discuss at least one new motion.
Defense attorney Lou DeFabio on Wednesday filed a motion asking that 11 interviews of key witnesses in the case be transcribed by a court reporter so that the defense can review them and use them at trial.
The filing asks that four interviews by investigators involving Alexis Schneider, mother of Rowan Sweeney; three interviews with Cassandra Marsicola; two interviews with Kimonie Bryant; and two interviews with Yarnell Green, all be transcribed.
The filing states that such transcriptions can be valuable in providing information to the defense to help it prepare for trial and they can be helpful at a hearing where the defense tries to suppress certain evidence or in questioning the statements of a witness.
Crump, who turns 21 on Jan. 10, was 17 at the time he is accused of having entered a home in Struthers where Rowan was with Schneider, his mother; Green, who was Schneider's boyfriend; and two other adults, including Marsicola.
Police say the episode apparently began as a robbery but resulted in the intruder shooting Rowan to death and then shooting all four adults in the home. Crump has two co-defendants, Bryant and Andre McCoy Jr.
ROBERT L. MOORE
Meanwhile another pretrial hearing was held Wednesday in the murder trial of Robert L. Moore, 53, of Alliance, who is accused of killing Glenna J. White, 16. White's body was never found.
The hearing was not held in the courtroom, and no details on the hearing were provided.
He is set for trial Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. He was tried once, but the jury could not decide on whether Moore was guilty of murder, so prosecutors decided to retry him.
Glenna was visiting a home on Alden Avenue in Smith Township when she left late June 2, 2009, with Moore. She had told others in the home that Moore had touched her inappropriately or tried to rape her, prosecutors said. Moore's girlfriend lived at the home.
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