YOUNGSTOWN — Jacoby M. Walker, 20, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and a gun specification Thursday for his role in the February 2022 shooting death of Isiah J. Helms, 22, who was killed at a house on Lilburn Avenue on the East Side.

Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony D’Apolito will sentence Walker at 10 a.m. June 25. Mahoning County prosecutors are recommending that Walker, of Youngstown, get 8 to 10 1/2 years in prison.

Walker was 19 years old in May of 2024 when he was booked into the Mahoning County jail on a warrant charging him with aggravated murder with a gun specification in Helms’ death. Walker and his warrant were discovered after Walker was involved in a crash on Interstate 680 in May.

Helms’ body was found at Mount Hope Veterans Memorial Cemetery, 1945 Liberty Road, Feb. 2, 2022. He was reported missing Jan. 30, 2022. He was last seen leaving his Plaza View Court apartment on the East Side just before 3 a.m. Jan. 30. He was believed to have been picked up by an unidentified person in a vehicle, police said.

Walker was 16 at the time of the killing, so his case was initially handled in Mahoning County Juvenile Court. Judge Theresa Dellick of Mahoning County Juvenile Court bound the case over to a Mahoning County grand jury last September. Walker was never indicted, however. Instead, Walker was charged under a bill of information, meaning he waived his right to have his case heard by a grand jury and was charged through a bill of information.

The courtnewsohio.gov website says a bill of information is “An instrument containing a formal accusation of a crime that is issued by a prosecutor and presented to the defendant. A bill of information … serves the same function as an indictment issued by a grand jury in felony cases,” it states.

During Walker’s hearing Thursday

Two other males were sentenced earlier for their roles in the case.

Jamiyah M. Brooks, now 21, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter with a gun specification and tampering with evidence in May of 2024. Brooks, who was 18 at the time of the offense, was sentenced to an agreed-upon 17 to 22.5 years in prison.

Nathaniel Austin Jr., 35, of Idora Avenue, pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence in the same killing and was sentenced to three years in prison. His hearing took place the same day as Brooks’ plea and sentencing hearing.

During Brooks’ sentencing hearing, Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Pat Fening said Helms was killed on the back porch of the home where Brooks lived on Lilburn Avenue.