Staff photo / Dan Pompili Vashuad May looks back at his friends and family after learning his fate. May was found guilty of aggravated murder Thursday in the April 2022 shooting death of Rawsheem Aponte, 24, and several other felonies related to the shootings of Aponte’s fiancée and 4-year-old daughter.

YOUNGSTOWN — Sentencing is expected Monday for a Youngstown man after a jury found him guilty Thursday of aggravated murder and several other felonies.

Vashuad May, 22, of Youngstown, was convicted of aggravated murder and first-degree murder, both with firearm specifications, in the April 2022 shooting death of Rawsheem Aponte, 24, on Mohawk Avenue in Youngstown.

The jury also found him guilty on three counts each of attempted murder with firearm specifications, three counts of felonious assault with firearm specifications, and a felony charge of possessing weapons while under disability.

In addition to killing Aponte, May also shot Aponte’s fiancée, Rikya Wright, and the couple’s 4-year-old daughter. Both survived.

Judge R. Scott Krichbaum said he wanted to proceed with sentencing “forthwith” and suggested it may happen as soon as Monday morning.

Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office deputies staffed the courtroom heavily amid concerns that May’s supporters may react poorly to a guilty verdict. On Tuesday, May’s mother had to be escorted out of the courtroom and later appeared in front of Krichbaum, facing a possible contempt charge. She was let off with a warning.

No incident followed the reading of the verdict. There was nobody in the gallery representing the victim.

Wright testified on Tuesday that while she was more focused on protecting her children than what May was wearing – surveillance video from a nearby camera and cellphone camera video show him wearing a mask while shooting seven times into the passenger’s side of the car – she clearly remembered his eyes.

She told the court she had seen May at a gas station once and also saw him in a music video that was released on YouTube less than a week before the shooting.

In that video, he can be seen holding the same style of rifle used in the murder, and holding it in his left hand, as he is seen doing in the video of the crime.

Youngstown Police Detective George Anderson also testified for the prosecution, detailing how police obtained videos of the crime and compared them to the YouTube video, which all corroborated Wright’s statements to police.

May did not testify on his own behalf, but Dr. Charles Goodsell, a psychology professor at Canisius University in Buffalo, testified as an expert witness on memory and witness identification. Defense attorney Aaron Meikle hoped his testimony might undermine Wright’s.

While a warrant was issued for May’s arrest a few week’s after the shooting, he was not arrested until late November 2023, when U.S. Marshals and police found him in a home in New Hope, Minn., near Minneapolis.

“We are pleased with the jury’s decision to place a dangerous man behind bars,” said Prosecutor Gina DeGenova. “Vashuad May instilled terror in a family that day and left behind scars that may never heal.”

DeGenova lauded law enforcement and Assistant Prosecutors Stephen Maszczak and Michael Rich for their “hard work and dedication” in arresting and successfully prosecuting May.

“May ruthlessly fired bullets into a vehicle, killing Mr. Aponte, injuring his innocent fiancée and a child,” said DeGenova. “My office will not stand for callous violence and vicious murders.”