The Ohio Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Dec. 10 to determine whether to uphold the 7th District Court of Appeals’ decision granting Lavontae Knight a new trial in the Dec. 30, 2018, killing of Trevice Harris and wounding Harris’ girlfriend in a car on Youngstown’s South Side.

Written arguments were filed with the state’s top court on behalf of Knight, 29, and on behalf of the prosecution on whether the Youngstown-based 7th District Court of Appeals made the right decision when it ordered in June 2024 to grant Knight a new trial on the grounds that Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge John Durkin made “cumulative errors that deprived (Knight) of a fair trial” in 2022.

Knight remains in the Ohio prison system after a jury found Knight guilty of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, two counts of aggravated robbery, two counts of kidnapping, and felonious assault. Durkin sentenced Knight to 58 years to life in prison in September 2022.

The 7th District said Durkin made an error in not allowing defense attorney David Betras more time to prepare for a hearing in which the parties questioned jurors after the trial was over regarding a remark one juror made to others about being afraid because she thought she was being followed when she left the courthouse one afternoon during Knight’s trial.

And the 7th District found that Durkin made an error in deciding that the remedy for a former assistant prosecutor not timely turning over evidence to the defense was to postpone the trial.