Staff photo / Ed Runyan Jules L. Freeman, 23, listened during his plea hearing Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. He pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the Jan. 22, 2024, shooting death of Allen W. Pierce-May, 23, on Youngstown’s South Side.

YOUNGSTOWN — Jules L. Freeman, 23, pleaded guilty Thursday to involuntary manslaughter and a gun specification in the Jan. 22, 2024, shooting death of Allen W. Pierce-May, 23, on Evergreen Avenue near Erie Street on the South Side.

Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Pat Fening said prosecutors and defense will jointly recommend that Freeman get 14 to 19 1/2 years in prison when he is sentenced at 9 a.m. Sept. 16.

Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Maureen Sweeney is presiding over the case.

Freeman, who had a New Philadelphia address at the time he was charged in the case, was indicted Feb. 29, 2024, on two counts of murder; one count of involuntary manslaughter; one count of discharge of a firearm on or near prohibited premises; one count of felonious assault; and one count of cocaine trafficking, according to court records. All of the charges except the drug charge also had a firearm specification.

In exchange for Freeman pleading guilty to the involuntary manslaughter and the firearm specification, prosecutors are dismissing the other charges.

In the May killing, Freeman is charged with two counts of murder and single counts of involuntary manslaughter; discharge of a firearm on or near prohibited premises; felonious assault; and cocaine trafficking, each with a firearm specification.

Relatively little information about the killing was released by Youngstown police. The department reported the day of the shooting that officers learned that Pierce-May had arrived at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital at 1:12 p.m. in a personal vehicle and was pronounced dead later.

An officer responded to the hospital and found a vehicle near the entrance to the emergency room and blood on the ground, a police report stated.

Officers determined that a “possible scene” for the shooting was East Evergreen Avenue near Erie Street. Officers “located” that scene and contacted detectives and crime scene personnel to investigate.

A later Youngstown police news release stated that police served a search warrant in New Philadelphia, in cooperation with the New Philadelphia Police Department. Youngstown prosecutors charged Freeman with complicity to murder in Youngstown Municipal Court Jan. 30, 2024, about two weeks later.

One thing that has become apparent as the case has unfolded is that authorities have had concerns about Freeman’s safety and the security of the courthouse during hearings in his case. On Thursday, seven deputies were in the courtroom providing security, which is more than usual.

Allen W. Pierce-May was an older brother of Persayus C. Davis-May, the 10-year-old girl who was shot to death while in her family’s home on Samuel Avenue on the South Side of Youngstown early Aug. 18, 2021.

Police said the bullets were apparently intended for adults who were in the front yard of the home. Then Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown suggested that the shooting was the result of a feud — like many in the city — in which the parties used guns to retaliate.

Then-Youngstown Chief Carl Davis said the girl was in her home, and adults were outside when the shooting took place at 2:27 a.m. Three adults were hit by the gunfire but were expected to survive.

PLEA HEARING

Freeman’s plea hearing was fairly short with Fening stating that Freeman was set for trial Monday, but a plea agreement was reached. Defense attorney Joe Ohlin briefly said that he had discussed the plea agreement with Freeman and advised him of his rights and other matters.

Sweeney then asked Freeman if he understood the plea agreement and asked him if he wanted to enter the plea and give up his right to a jury trial and all of the rights that go along with that. He said he understood.

She told him she could sentence him to as much as 14 to 19 1/2 years in prison and he will be on post-release control for two to five years when he leaves prison and other details.

He responded “Yes, Your Honor,” after each question and later entered guilty pleas to the involuntary manslaughter and gun specification. The hearing was over in less than five minutes.

Freeman was free on a $275,000 bond starting around Feb. 1, 2024. But Sweeney revoked his bond April 7, 2025, after Freeman was charged with felony strangulation, misdemeanor assault, criminal damaging and unlawful restraint in an episode involving a woman.

A New Philadelphia police report stated that a woman told New Philadelphia police that Freeman was looking through her phone and became upset, spraying her with pepper spray, breaking her phone, destroying some of her belongings and choking her multiple times to the point of nearly losing consciousness.

An officer said the woman did not have a smell of pepper spray about her and did not have any red marks on her neck. Her eyes were red and glassy, the officer stated.

Officers went to a home in New Philadelphia and spoke to Freeman, who said the woman gave him the password to look through her phone and he found evidence that she was spending time with other men. Freeman denied that he did anything physical to the woman, but he said the woman hit him in the lip, which was swollen, the officer stated.

He told the officer the woman tried to pepper spray him, and that is when he grabbed the pepper spray. She pepper sprayed herself in the face, he told police, according to the report. Freeman admitted to pushing the woman but only to get her out of the house, the report states. He also admitted to throwing her belongings outside, it states.

Freeman was arrested and wrote a statement, the report states. Freeman had scratches on his arms, chest and back and said the woman caused them.

The woman said she was at Freeman’s house when the fight took place, and Freeman pulled her hair. The screen on the woman’s phone was shattered. The woman drove to a gas station and called police, the report states.

Freeman pleaded guilty Oct. 2 to misdemeanor disorderly conduct, criminal damaging or endangering and unlawful restraint in Tuscarawas County Common Pleas Court with the felony strangulation being dismissed. He was sentenced to 180 days in the Tuscarawas County jail with credit for 170 days already served, according to court records.

On Wednesday, Sweeney ordered that Freeman be held in the Mahoning County jail under “administrative segregation until further order of this court.” Jail records indicate that Freeman was booked into the jail Wednesday.

In January 2025, Sweeney sustained a motion by prosecutors to prevent Freeman from presenting a self-defense claim at his trial.