YOUNGSTOWN — Twice last month, efforts by attorney Rhys Cartwright-Jones failed to overturn the convictions of John E. Morgan, 48, in the July 31, 2022, shooting death of Daniel Peek Sr., 46, at Peek’s East Florida Avenue home on Youngstown’s South Side.

Morgan, of Campbell, was convicted of murder, a gun specification and felonious assault at his February 2024 trial in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court and got 18 years to life in prison in a case covered by local news media and an A&E film crew.

In December 2024, the 7th District Court of Appeals denied an appeal filed by Morgan’s trial attorneys that asked for Morgan’s convictions and sentence be overturned. The appeal argued that Morgan’s convictions were not supported by evidence and that jury instructions were confusing and misleading.

Cartwright Jones, a different attorney from the ones who represented Morgan at his trial, followed that up with an appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court. He asked in January 2025 that it overturn the 7th District Court of Appeals’ December 2024 decision.

But the Ohio Supreme Court ruled April 1 that it would not accept “jurisdiction” in that matter, meaning it refused to review the 7th District’s ruling after reviewing the memorandum filed by Cartwright Jones on Jan. 1, 2025.

Cartwright Jones also asked the 7th District Court of Appeals on March 10 to reconsider its December decision, reopen the case and order a new trial for Morgan.

This time, the argument was that Morgan received ineffective assistance from his two Cleveland trial attorneys, Brandon Henderson and Justin Weatherly of Cleveland. But on April 9, the appeals panel rejected those arguments after also reviewing a memorandum filed by Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Kristie Weibling.