Staff photo / Ed Runyan Elijah J. May, 21, left, stands with his attorney, Michael Kivlighan, during May’s sentencing hearing Monday before Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. May was sentenced to 6 to 7.5 years in prison for shooting Ray’Mon Sims, 22, to death during a confrontation on Tod Lane near Belmont Avenue on the North Side of Youngstown.

YOUNGSTOWN — A Mahoning County assistant prosecutor told Judge Maureen Sweeney last week that Charese Sims, mother of Ray’Mon Sims “understood why” prosecutors were willing to reduce the murder charge against Elijah J. May, 21, in the April 11, 2023, killing of her son to involuntary manslaughter.

But when it came time for May to be sentenced Monday morning to 6 to 7 1/2 years in prison — the sentence he received — Charese Sims gave a victim impact statement that ended with the remark “This is not true justice.”

That caused Sweeney to call the attorneys up to the bench for a conversation, and the judge did not appear to be happy.

Then May was led from the courtroom, and the two county assistant prosecutors working on the case, Rob Andrews and Patrick Fening, spoke with Charese Sims in the gallery, apparently about her remarks. A short time later, the hearing resumed.

Andrews told the judge he and Fening “have spoken with the victim’s mother. She is not happy with the judicial system. She is not happy that her son was killed. She believes the defendant deserves more.

“However, she understands what the pluses and minuses are in this case. She understands why the state entered this agreement, and she does feel that this is the best alternative, so she is asking to go forward with the plea,” he said.

“Ms. Sims, is that correct?” the judge asked.

“Yes,” Charese Sims replied.

Then Andrews explained that the day Ray’Mon Sims, 22, was killed, there was an argument between May and Sims, and Sims went to May’s house on Tod Lane, near Belmont Avenue on the North Side, with another man.

“They agreed there would be a fist fight. Both parties had firearms. Both parties agreed to put their firearms down. There was a fistfight — punching, kicking, wrestling, whatever, the fight ended.” Andrews said Sims and his friend were “walking away and gunfire broke out.”

Andrews said Sims and May fired their guns at each other. He said if the matter had gone to trial, the issue would have been “who fired first. It’s very unclear.” The other man with Sims gave “somewhat inconsistent statements,” and his statements got “even more inconsistent” as the trial got closer. That man was not injured, Andrews said.

Andrews said three or four people who lived near the fight gave statements about what they saw. “And even their accounts of what happened varied from each other, as well as what the defendant told police and what Mr. Sims’ companion told police.”

Andrews said with prosecutors having the burden to prove that May did not act in self defense, “that would have been very difficult for the state to do, and that is why we resolved it in this way.” He added, “I believe it is a just agreement.” He asked the judge to give May 6 to 7 1/2 years in prison.

Defense attorney Michael Kivlighan said the confrontation began when “7, 8, 9 guys got out of the car” at May’s house the day before the killing, “and they are trying to get him to come out and fight.”

May would not come out, and they eventually left, Kivlighan said.

The next day, just Sims and his friend returned. They stood in May’s front yard with a gun, “and they yelled and screamed at him to come out, and eventually he did come out,” Kivligan said.

May and Sims agreed to fight with no guns, “but as soon as (May) puts his gun down, he gets bum rushed” by Sims and the other man. “He got pistol whipped,” Kighlighan said of May.

“He had his phone taken. He had money taken.” Both items were recovered on the man with Sims, Kivlighan said.

May grabbed his gun from his girlfriend’s car after hearing one of his assailants say “Shoot him,” Kivlighan said. He agreed with Andrews that there is a dispute over who fired first.

May had a “complete self defense,” but May was not allowed to possess a weapon at the time of the shooting, so it’s not clear how a jury would have decided the case, Kivlighan said.

May told the judge Monday he and Sims were “friends,” but Sims and the other man “rushed me. There was nothing else I could possibly do.” May said after his assailants “opened fire,” he had to defend himself and his girlfriend, who was nearby in her car. “I’m sorry he died. I loved him to death. One thing led to another,” May said.

Charese Sims told the judge in her victim statement that she has a “life sentence of not being able to hear my son’s voice, of not being able to get a phone call from him” or see him “grow up to be the man he should have been.”

She said May “called himself my son’s friend. There is no possible way they could ever have been friends for something like this to have happened. I tell my children to use the word ‘friends’ loosely because of things like this.”

She said, “The judicial system has failed me and my son today. The only thing I can say is I hope and I pray that true justice will prevail because this is not true justice.” She was referring to the agreed upon recommendation that May get 6 to 7 1/2 years in prison.

Prosecutors said there is no requirement that the family of a victim agree to a sentencing recommendation, but judges have the right to reject a sentencing recommendation and chose a different one from the recommendation.

May pleaded guilty last week to involuntary manslaughter with a gun specification and one count of discharging a firearm into or at a habitation. May got credit for 489 days already served.

After Sims was shot, he drove several blocks away from Tod Lane before the car went through a yard and hit the front porch of a home on Alameda Avenue.

Sims and the other man got out and ran to the next street over — Crandall Avenue — on foot, where Sims collapsed. Ambulance workers gave Sims medical care, but he was pronounced dead at nearby St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.

Sims, who had a North Side address, graduated from Youngstown East High School and attended Youngstown State University, according to his obituary.