YOUNGSTOWN — A 16-year-old Youngstown boy testified Monday that on March 23, his brother, Keondre Lewis, 19, and his 14-year-old cousin were together in a room in the upstairs of a home on Rhoda Avenue on the West Side.

Later, Lewis and the 14-year-old went downstairs together, and then family members upstairs heard a gunshot from downstairs “like a door closed and like a loud bang,” the 16-year-old said.

He went downstairs, saw his brother alone on the floor of the dining / family room, went upstairs and got his shoes, then ran out the front door “chasing after” his cousin. But before he could catch up to him, “the police got him,” he said in the courtroom of Mahoning County County Juvenile Court Judge Theresa Dellick.

Under questioning by Walter Madison, attorney for the 14-year-old charged with murder in Lewis’ death, the 16-year-old confirmed that he and the defendant are cousins. And when Madison asked whether he loves his 14-year-old cousin despite the murder charge, he agreed that he does.

This unusual testimony came during a hearing meant to help Dellick decide whether there is probable cause to transfer the case of the 14-year-old to Mahoning County Common Pleas Court so he can be tried as an adult.

In opening statements, Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor John Juhasz said that on the afternoon Lewis was killed, only the 14-year-old and Lewis were in the downstairs area of the home when family members upstairs “heard a loud bang” and found Lewis downstairs in a pool of blood.

Lewis’ 16-year-old brother did not catch up to the 14-year-old on the way to the 14-year-old’s home on West Heights Avenue home several blocks away. A weapon was seized by Youngstown police at that location, Juhasz said. The weapon was later matched to a bullet shell casing found on the dining room table of the home on Rhoda Avenue, Juhasz said.

In Madison’s opening statement, he took exception to the use of the word “flee” regarding the suspect, adding that the suspect “may have stated he wanted to hurt himself” when he arrived at his home.

The 16-year-old agreed under questioning by Madison that the killing of the 14-year-old’s brother, D’Andre Stores, 30, March 3 in the parking lot of the Vibez Bar on East Midlothian Avenue was the reason the 14-year-old was staying at the home of Lewis and his family. The 16-year-old also agreed that he did not see the shooting that killed his brother.

Youngstown police crime scene investigator Shakir Perkins testified that one of the items he recovered at the Rhoda Avenue home was a bullet shell casing from the dining room table. He also testified that he collected a handgun from the top of the refrigerator of the home on West Heights where the 14-year-old lived.

Brad Ditullio, another Youngstown crime scene investigator, testified that the residents of the home on West Heights Avenue gave permission for officers to search the home.

Youngstown Police Detective Sgt. Phil Skowron testified that the bullet shell casing recovered from the dining room table at the Rhoda home and the gun recovered from the West Heights home were a “match.” The autopsy report for Lewis is not complete yet, Skowron said.

Under questioning by Madison, Skowron testified that the 14-year-old’s family was cooperative during the investigation.

The 14-year-old’s charges are murder with a firearm specification and a specification of forfeiture of a handgun. The boy has been detained in the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center since the incident.

The criminal complaint in his case accuses the boy of purposely causing Lewis’ death and having a weapon at the time of the murder or “used it to facilitate the offense.”

But Madison questioned Skowron at length about the reasons the 14-year-old was charged with murder instead of a lesser offense that does not allege an intentional act.

Madison asked Skowron if firearms contain a warning that they are dangerous to children and asked if children are “just too immature to use a gun.” Skowron agreed with both statements.

Madison also referenced suggestions that the 14-year-old fired a handgun at a television set a week before the killing and a suggestion that the 14-year-old was “completely distraught” right after the killing. Madison asked if those things are “consistent with” a child committing an “intentional killing.”

Skowron replied, “I’m not a psychologist.”

Lewis, a 2024 Youngstown East High School graduate, was found with a gunshot wound when police arrived for a 2:14 p.m. shooting that had just happened, according to reports at the time. While Youngstown police were on Rhoda Avenue, “multiple witnesses” gave the name of the shooter to police, a report states.

“Officers were able to locate the suspect at a different location and take him into custody,” it stated.