Staff file photo / Ed Runyan Firefighters, ambulance personnel and others worked in the first minutes after they arrived at the Realty Tower in downtown Youngstown May 28, 2024, to rescue the Chase Bank employees from the building. One employee, Akil Drake, however, died in the explosion.

YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County Probate Court Judge Robert Rusu Jr. listened to testimony from the mother and sister of Akil Drake, the 27-year-old Chase Bank employee who was killed in the May 28, 2024, explosion in the basement of the Realty Tower downtown, during a hearing to determine whether to approve the $6.1 million settlement the women reached with three sets of defendants they sued in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

Rusu also asked Drake’s mother, Sharnette Crite-Evans, and Drake’s sister, Traesha Pritchard, questions and asked their attorney, Patrick McFarland, questions about the expenses he and three other law firms charged the women for representing them.

A Probate Court document released in May outlined the terms of the agreement. It stated that the beneficiaries of the settlement would share $3.6 million of the $6.1 million, with Crite-Evans, who is administrator of her son’s estate, getting 50% (about about $1.8 million), Pritchard getting 40% (about $1.4 million); Drake’s paternal grandparents each getting 1.5% (about $54,000 each), and seven paternal half-brothers and half-sisters on Drake’s father’s side each getting 1%, (about $36,000 each.)

The agreement called for the law firm of Clark, Fountain, Littky-Rubin & Whitman LLP being paid $1,001,160; the law firm of Patrick McFarland getting $517,590; the Adler Law PLLC getting $455,625; and the firm of Ginnis, Krathen & Zelnick, P.A., getting $455,625. That totals $2.43 million in attorney’s fees, the document states.

It is Rusu’s role to review the agreement and determine whether it is fair to everyone and whether to approve or modify it. At the end of the hearing, Rusu said he would take the matter under advisement and issue a decision later. But at various stages, Rusu asked McFarland questions about travel expenses and other expenses listed in the agreement, telling him that he does not award travel expenses to the attorneys in such matters, repeatedly saying attorney travel expenses are “part of the cost of doing business” and noting that the attorneys were getting paid 40 % of the settlement amount.

Only McFarland was there to talk to Rusu about the travel expenses; no representative from the three other law firms attended. Two attorneys representing some of the defendants attended the hearing, but did not appear to have any role than to listen to the proceedings.

The parties that agreed to pay the $6.1 million settlement are the Realty Tower’s owners and managers, Yo Properties 47 LLC, LY Property Management LLC and Greenheart Companies LLC, who agreed to pay $3 million and the Enbridge-East Ohio Gas-Dominion-related companies that agreed to pay $2.9 million. A. Nieder Architecture and MS Consultants agreed to pay $100,000 each.

No one spoke at the hearing to represent the two paternal grandparents and seven half brothers and sisters of Akil Drake who are in line to receive settlement funds.

Crite-Evans and Pritchard testified at length about Akil Drake’s relationship with his paternal grandparents and seven surviving half brothers and sisters. Drake’s father died in 2018 in the Pittsburgh area but did not have a great deal of contact with Drake, according to testimony.

Crite-Evans, of Pittsburgh, and Pritchard, of Charlotte, said Akil Drake tried many times to reach out to his half brothers and sisters, but they did not show a similar interest in being close with him.

Crite-Evans testified that when Akil Drake’s father died in 2018, Akil dressed in white like his half brothers and sisters did for their father’s funeral. But his half siblings told him to “take off his white clothes,” Crite Evans said, which caused her great pain to see her son experience that type of rejection.

Crite-Evans and Pritchard both showed the judge family photos showing Akil Drake at various points in his life. With them came testimony that there were scarcely any photos of Akil Drake with his father or half-siblings because they were barely involved in Akil Drake’s life.

Rusu asked Crite-Evans a series of questions to ensure that she understood that she does not have to approve this settlement and that if she does approve it, it brings nearly total finality to her claims, and she can no longer take the case to trial and possibly get a larger payout.

Crite-Evans said she understood and believes the settlement is fair. She said all of her questions were answered by her attorneys.

Rusu asked Crite-Evans if she can describe the manner in which her son died to help him determine whether Akil Drake suffered after the natural gas explosion dropped him into the basement. He said it could affect his ruling on the settlement.

Crite-Evans said she got to Youngstown when she heard that Akil Drake was missing after the explosion. She said she remained at the site until firefighters removed his body from the basement late that evening.

“He was down there a while,” she said, describing the point when a gurney covered with a burgundy velvet blanket was taken from the building. She said she knew that funeral homes used such blankets. “I knew my baby was gone,” she said.