YOUNGSTOWN — Two assistant federal public defenders filed a motion July 17 that asks Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony Donofrio to allow them to file a motion for a new trial on behalf of Ohio death row inmate John E. Drummond Jr., 48, of Youngstown.

Drummond was convicted in 2004 of aggravated murder and other offenses in the March 24, 2003, shooting death of 3-month old Jiyen C. Dent Jr. on Rutledge Drive on Youngstown’s East Side.

The boy was killed when gunshots were fired into his family’s home that evening. Prosecutors said the gunshots were intended for someone else.

A second defendant, Wayne Gilliam, 44, was convicted in a 2003 trial and was sentenced to 54 years to life in prison. He was convicted of complicity to aggravated murder and other crimes and remains in prison. The late Judge Maureen Cronin presided over both cases.

In October of 2024, Gov. Mike DeWine granted a reprieve of Drummond’s execution date from April 15, 2025, to March 15, 2028. Drummond was granted other reprieves in 2017 and in 2021.

The filing asks that Donofrio allow the filing because of affidavits the federal public defender’s office obtained from two people this year who testified at Drummond’s 2004 trial. They are Chauncey Walker, whose affidavit was last June, and Nathaniel T. Morris, whose affidavit was in March. They were both inmates in the Mahoning County jail while Drummond was housed there after the murder.

In Walker’s affidavit, he stated that his testimony about Drummond making incriminating statements about the killing to Walker in the jail were false and that he only testified in that manner in hopes of getting a better outcome in his own criminal case.

CASE HISTORY

According to a history contained in a 2018 Ohio Supreme Court ruling regarding Drummond case, between March and August 2003, Walker and Drummond were incarcerated in the same cellblock at the Mahoning County jail, and Drummond talked to Walker about his case every day.

Walker testified that Drummond told Walker that on the night of the shooting, Drummond “got out of the car and fired some shots at the house and then got back in the car and pulled off.” The summary states that Walker testified that “Drummond told Walker that ‘he intended to hurt whoever the bullet hit,’ but he didn’t intend to kill no baby.'”

Walker’s June 4 affidavit states that he was housed near Drummond in the jail, but he and another inmate, Nathaniel Morris, “concocted a story that we both determined would get us out of jail faster. We decided Morris would call a detective and tell them I had information about Drummond.”

It states that “In fact, (Drummond) never told me anything about the shooting. I did what I had to do to survive, to avoid a long prison sentence.”

The history section of the Ohio Supreme Court ruling, which is apparently an account of testimony from Drummond’s trial, states that in May of 2003, “Morris overheard Drummond tell Walker that he ‘didn’t (mean) to kill the baby; he was trying to get at somebody else.” It added that “On more than one occasion, Morris overheard Drummond asking Walker, ‘You think I’m going to get convicted on this, you think they have anything on me, stuff like that.”

A federal public defender’s investigator, however, obtained an affidavit March 5, 2025, from Morris in which Morris said he never heard Drummond say anything about his criminal case and that “All I heard was what Chauncey Walker said to me.”

Morris stated in the affidavit that Walker told Morris one day to call a detective and “tell them that Chauncey Walker had information on (Drummond). He said that information could get Chauncey and me out of jail.” Morris said he looked up the phone number, called and said, “Chauncey had information on (Drummond) shooting somebody,” according to the affidavit.

“I told the prosecutor all I know is what Chauncey Walker told me. I also told the prosecutor that I never saw or heard (Drummond) say anything while I was in the Mahoning County (jail) in 2003.”

Morris stated in the affidavit, “The prosecutor told me OK but wanted me to testify to what Walker said and to give us a few details about the layout of the (jail). I agreed.”

Morris stated that the prosecutor knew that Morris did not hear Drummond say anything about his criminal case. Morris added, “I know it may look like I testified to hearing and seeing (Drummond) in jail. However, I did not. I testified to what Chauncey Walker told me and what Chauncey Walker supposedly heard (Drummond) say, and the prosecutor knew that.”

Assistant federal public defenders Alan Rossman and Tiana Bohanon filed their Motion For Leave to File a Delayed Motion For New Trial July 17.

The filing states that the motion “will be based on misconduct by the State and newly discovered evidence.” It alleges that Drummond “was deprived of his Constitutional right due to process because of the State’s presentation of false testimony that was known to be untrue.”

The newly discovered evidence “was not available to Drummond within” the deadlines that normally apply, the filing states.

VINDICATOR COVERAGE

A Feb. 5, 2004, Vindicator story on the Drummond trial recounted testimony from the previous day in which a resident of the neighborhood where the shooting took place saw Gilliam whisper “something in John Drummond’s ear during an impromptu gathering of friends on Duncan Lane” (near Rutledge Drive), then saw Drummond “walk away and say to someone else, ‘It’s on.'”

It states that Gilliam and Drummond “left shortly afterward, returning about 10 minutes later, each in his own car. Drummond got out of his car carrying a rifle and got into Gilliam’s car,” the article states.

“The two drove up Duncan (Lane), and the car disappeared as Gilliam made a right turn onto Rutledge Drive. Within minutes, a series of loud gunshots rang out, sending people scattering for cover,” the article states.

A man who was at the gathering testified that “he overheard Drummond, Gilliam and others talking about ‘a guy moving into our neighborhood who could have had something to do with the death of Bret Schroeder.'”

The article noted that “Assistant (Mahoning County) Prosecutor Timothy Franken said Drummond believed” that an adult in the house where the 3-month-old lived “was responsible for the slaying of Schroeder in 1998. Schroeder, Gilliam and Drummond all were members of the Lincoln Knolls Crips, according to testimony.”

The article also reported that “Nathaniel Morris testified that while he was an inmate in the county jail last year, he overheard Drummond talking to another inmate, Chauncy Walker, about the shooting.”

PROSECUTION RESPONSE

Meanwhile, the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s office has been granted three extensions on its deadline to respond to the defense motion, the most recent one Nov. 19.

The request, written by Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro and Mahoning County Chief Assistant Prosecutor John Juhasz, was for another 60 days to respond because of the “record” (documents, evidence, etc.) in the case being “voluminous,” and the trial transcript being over 4,000 pages.

It adds, “Also for a reason that counsel cannot explain, the case file for this case is largely missing from the County Prosecutor’s Office. Under what circumstances someone would discard a capital case file, the undersigned simply cannot conceive.”

Maro was elected Mahoning County prosecutor in November 2024. Before her, Gina DeGenova served as county prosecutor for two years. For 26 years before DeGenova, the prosecutor was Paul Gains.

Maro’s office was able to obtain a transcript of the Drummond trial from the Mahoning County Clerk of Court’s Office and from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, the filing states.

The filing notes that Drummond was convicted “two decades before” the current “Delayed Motion for New Trial” was requested. It states that Cronin is deceased, and Franken, the lead prosecutor in the Drummond case, is also deceased. The other assistant prosecutor was Kelly Johns, who “has not worked for the Prosecutor’s Office in years.”

The filing states that Walker’s affidavit mentions a Youngstown detective who “‘Put most of the pressure’ upon (Walker) to testify against (Drummond).” But the affidavit “did not identify that detective. Because the State claims that this did not occur, pinpointing this could be challenging.”

It states that “Upon investigation by current State prosecutors — none of whom have any personal knowledge of this case — it has been learned that some records that might dispute the motion’s claims have been lost or destroyed.

“Whether that disappearance is under ‘normal’ records retention and disposition policies remains undetermined,” it adds. “The defense is required … to establish both that the trial testimony was false and that the State actors knew that the testimony was false.”

It states that it is likely that Franken “conducted the lion’s share of the interviews with the witnesses whom the defendant now claims were lying when they testified under oath at the trial.

“The other prosecutor who tried the case has some recollection of the case, but memories fade with the passage of time. Now that the State’s counsel has secured the trial transcript at least, an additional 60 days is necessary for counsel to familiarize themselves with the record and to formulate an intelligent and adequate response that will be useful to the Court.”