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Sparks fly in opening testimony of Youngstown murder trial

YOUNGSTOWN -- Rikya Wright testified Tuesday that on April 26, 2022, while riding in the car of her fiance, Rawsheem Aponte, 24, she watched as Aponte warned her about two men he saw alongside the road, fled from them, then found himself on a dead end road with two men firing at their car.

Aponte backed his car toward the shooters, and his car ended up in the front yard of a home, as Wright jumped into the back seat to shield her two children from the barrage of gunfire, she said.

Aponte fell unresponsive as the chaotic scene unfolded, she said. Wright was cross examined about her identification of Vashaud May, 22, as the shooter. May is on trial on a charge of aggravated murder and other offenses. Many times during her testimony, Wright asked angrily why questions by defense attorney Aaron Meikle mattered. Many times she said it had been two years since her fiance was killed and she doesn't remember.

She was trying to save her two children in the back seat from being killed and wasn't focused on what type of clothing someone was wearing, she said.

One thing she will never forget, she said, is the man who killed her fiance in front of her and their children. The man, who was wearing a mask and stood 4 feet from her while shooting into the car, was Vashuad May, she said.

She did not know May personally, she testified under a long and contentious cross examination from Meikle. But she had seen May at a gas station once while she was with Aponte and had seen May in at least one music video, she said.

And the thing that stood out above everything else about the man who killed her fiance was his eyes, she said. They were May's eyes.

Meikle asked if the gunman was wearing a mask, and she said he was. "So the individual was wearing a mask?" Meikle asked again.

"Yes, but I will never forget his eyes," Wright said.

The exchange that followed was typical of the sparring that went on between Wright and Meikle: He asked if Wright was able to identify whether "that night" the shooter was left-handed.

"You say identify him that night?" she asked. "Yes," Meikle said. "What do you mean by that night?" she asked.

"When did you learn that the shooter was left-handed?" Meikle said.

"What do you mean when did I learn he was left-handed? I knew he was left-handed," she said.

"What I am asking is did you observe the shooter shooting left-handed?" Meikle asked. "Yes," she answered.

A short time later, Meikle asked her about the moment where the shooter quit firing and walked away. "Was he walking up to the car?" Meikle asked.

"Running, walking, same difference. I mean I don't know what you want me to say," she said. "I seen him."

Later, Meikle asked her what happened when the shooter ran up to the car she was in with Aponte.

"What do you mean what happened at that point?" she asked.

"What happened next?" Meikle asked. "He shot Rawsheem," she said.

"So they shoot Rawsheem. What happens next?" Meikle asked.

"What do you mean what happens next?" she asked.

In opening statements to the jury, Meikle said the prosecution will never be able to say for certain who the shooter was. The case is built on the "assumption" that May was the shooter, he said. "At best, they will be able to say Vashuad May could have been the shooter," Meikle said.

The trial is in the courtroom of Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Steve Maszczak, assistant county prosecutor, told jurors in his opening statement that the shooting took place at 5:20 p.m. on Mohawk Avenue on the South Side, killing Aponte and injuring Wright with a bullet wound of the leg. Their 4-year-old daughter also suffered a gunshot wound to the leg. The other child was not hit.

Maszczak said a surveillance video taken from the house where the car came to rest shows "the defendant chasing down the family's vehicle and firing at point-blank range multiple rounds at the passenger side window."

He said, "As you are watching that video, I would like you all to pay special attention to two things in particular: the size rifle the defendant is using and ... the manner in which the defendant is shooting that rifle."

Aponte and Wright were headed to a store in Pennsylvania to buy groceries, Maszczak said. But first they stopped at a house on Belden Avenue, and Apponte saw two cars on the street "almost as if they were waiting for him to arrive, and he had a very uneasy feeling," Maszczak said.

Aponte drove toward Poland Avenue and the Center Street Bridge, and Wright saw that they were being chased and shot at by multiple cars, Maszczak said. Aponte turned right onto Poland Avenue toward Struthers, and it appeared the shooters stopped following.

Aponte then made a fatal error, turning onto Mount Vernon Avenue, Maszczak said. It ends in a cul-de-sac, trapping Aponte and his family as a white Malibu follows them, the assistant prosecutor said.

Wright saw two men "jump out of that Malibu and start shooting into their car," Maszczak said. May chased the car on foot and shot into the car seven times at "essentially point blank," Maszczak said.

The trial resumes this morning with another prosecution witness.

Security was tight on Tuesday, with deputies watching the large group of people in the gallery intently. At one point, a woman was removed from the courtroom and taken to a holding cell in the basement of the courthouse for failing to control her emotions during the trial. The onlookers were warned multiple times that misbehavior would result in a jail sentence.

At the end of the day, the woman -- Aponte's mother -- was taken before the judge and apologized. She was not held in contempt or taken to jail.