YOUNGSTOWN — An eyewitness to the Sept. 29, 2022, shooting death of Jacob Moore, 21, on New York Avenue near Logan Avenue on the North Side testified as the first witness in the Mekhi Venable aggravated murder trial Monday.

Venable, 20, is accused of shooting Moore during an argument. Venable is on trial before Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. The trial resumes this morning.

The woman’s testimony, especially when answering questions from defense attorney John Juhasz, delved into the interactions she, Moore and two other males had that day with Venable prior to an argument on New York Avenue that resulted in the gunfire.

However, descriptions of what happened on New York Avenue told a particular story.

She and her two children were in her car, and the victim and the two other males were there. One male was her boyfriend. The other was her boyfriend’s brother. Her boyfriend is a cousin to Moore.

She said that when Venable’s car pulled up, “Words got exchanged between them. After that, they pretty much agreed to fight,” she said of Moore and Venable.

“They agreed to put the guns down and just fight,” she said under questioning from Pat Fening, county assistant prosecutor.

She agreed that her cousin usually had a gun on him, but she saw him hand his gun to one of the other males. “He then goes over to the car,” she said. Moore then waited for Venable to “get out of the car,” she said.

But Venable did not get out of the car, she said. When Fening asked what happened next, she got emotional and she was given tissues to dry her tears.

“Pretty much he pulls his gun out and shot him,” she said of Venable.

Then Fening had her identify Venable in the courtroom as the person who shot Moore to death, and she did.

After the shooting, Venable “fled the scene,” she said. She called 911 and then helped the other males load Moore into a vehicle, and Moore was driven to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, where he died.

Defense attorney John Juhasz, then questioned her extensively about her, her two children, Moore and the two other men going to Venable’s home on Midlothian Boulevard earlier in the day of the shooting. Juhasz asked if it was true there were “two beefs” between Moore and Venable that day.

“Not beefs,” she said. There was a conflict between her and another woman over money and marijuana, she said. The woman had dated Venable, she agreed. She said Venable told the witness by phone to come to his house so they could “get clarification” on the issue over the money.

The witness said she called Venable because she wanted to talk to the other woman about the theft, she said. The witness agreed that the issue over the money upset her.

When questioned by Fening the next time, she said there was no “hostility” between her and Venable when she left Venable’s house. She also agreed that Venable was “not supposed to be at” New York Avenue after she and the others left Venable’s house, but he was. Moore had given his gun to one of the other males before he approached Venable’s car, she said.

OPENING STATEMENTS

In opening statements of the trial Monday morning, Fening told jurors that Venable shot Moore intentionally, but Juhasz said Venable shot Moore only because it was a case of “shoot or be killed.”

Juhasz said jurors will hear two different versions of how the shooting took place. The stories will agree that Moore “and others showed up on New York Avenue on Sept. 29, 2022, and that Jacob Moore was shot and killed.”

In the prosecution’s version, “three adult males, heavily armed, one adult female and two young children show up on New York Avenue near the corner of Logan on the city’s North Side and then Jacob lays aside his (FN Firearms) pistol, which you will hear testimony about, and an assault rifle and wanted nothing more than a fistfight.” In that version, “Mekhi shot for no good reason other than that he wanted (Moore) dead,” Juhasz said.

The other version of the story is that Moore and the others had weapons and Venable was in a car, but Moore “didn’t lay down his weapon, and (Moore) was coming at the car, not with the (pistol) laid aside but with FN in his hand and that he pointed it at Mekhi Venable telling him that he was going to kill him.”

Juhasz said in the defense’s version of the story, “Mekhi Venable, in those seconds, perhaps milliseconds, thinking he would be shot dead, reached down in the car, pulled out a gun and shot Jacob, not to kill him but to keep himself from being killed.”