Staff photos / Ed Runyan Akeem Hargrove is seen before the start of jury selection Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. He is charged with aggravated murder and murder.

YOUNGSTOWN — A jury was seated Monday in the aggravated murder trial of Akeem M. Hargrove, 32, one of two men accused in the Dec. 22, 2022, shooting death of Devon Bell, 26, at the Shell gas station on South and Samuel avenues on the South Side.

The case is being heard by Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Opening statements by the attorneys are expected to be given this morning.

Special Prosecutor Brad Gessner and a fellow assistant prosecutor from Summit County are handling the prosecution after the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s office stated that because of a conflict of interest, Mahoning County prosecutors would be unable to prosecute the case.

Lynn Maro, who became Mahoning County prosecutor in January, was Hargrove’s defense attorney starting in 2023 until she requested to have a special prosecutor handle the case in the weeks after she took office as county prosecutor.

Gessner is a former assistant Mahoning County prosecutor who sought the Mahoning County Democratic Party’s appointment to fill the unexpired term of former Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains when he retired in late 2022.

Instead, the party selected Assistant Prosecutor Gina DeGenova, who filled the position for two years, until Maro defeated DeGenova in the November 2024 election.

TWO DEFENDANTS

Hargrove and Zachary S. Bair, 35, both of Youngstown, were named in superseding indictments in July 2024 in Bell’s murder. Both men were indicted on charges of aggravated murder and murder, both with gun specifications.

Police said two men wearing all black and ski masks ran from the scene of the 2:24 a.m. shooting and fled down Samuel Avenue. When police arrived, they found Bell in the driver’s seat of a Chevrolet Cruze backed into a parking spot near the entrance to the building.

Windows on the car were shattered, and bullet shell casings were found on the ground nearby, as well as one on the windshield.

Police sent their police dog into the area where the suspects fled, and it led to the discovery of a handgun with an “extended magazine” and a knife. Ambulance personnel said Bell was dead at the scene.