YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge Anthony Donofrio has ordered sealed files in the possession of the Mahoning Clerk of Courts office related to the 2003 drive-by murder of a 3-month-old baby in Youngstown be copied and released to the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office and to the defendant in the murder.

The files apparently were in a filing cabinet in the clerk of courts office for almost 21 years before the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office learned March 4 where to look for them, requested them from the clerk of courts office and got confirmation that the files existed.

Prosecutors had been looking for files related to the 2003 John E. Drummond Jr. murder case since sometime in 2025 so they could acquire the background needed to respond to a motion by Drummond’s attorneys for a new trial based on a witness in Drummond’s 2004 trial allegedly recanting his testimony.

Drummond was convicted of the March 24, 2003, killing of 3-month-old Jiyen Dent Jr. in Youngstown in a drive-by shooting on Rutledge Avenue on the East Side that prosecutors believed was aimed at the baby’s father.

Drummond, 48, is on death row because of being convicted in the murder.

Prosecutors told Donofrio in multiple filings that the files of the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s office into the case could not be found. But asking the right person ultimately led to a filing cabinet in Clerk of Courts Michael Ciccone’s office Jan. 14 and a copy of the missing files.

A copy of the prosecutor’s file and a copy of the Youngstown Police Department files in the case had been stored at the clerk of courts office starting March 4, 2004, because the file was accepted “under seal,” meaning not open to public inspection without a court order, officials said recently.

It led Mahoning County prosecutors to ask Donofrio on Jan. 23 to unseal the documents and allow the prosecutor’s office to have access to them.

Donofrio ruled Feb. 18 to do that. The entry states that on March 5, 2004, the prosecutor’s files were filed under seal, and June 22, 2004, the complete investigative file of the police department was filed under seal.

Drummond filed a motion for leave to file a delayed motion for new trial and a post-conviction petition July 17, 2025, and Aug. 13, 2025, respectively.

The entry states he was releasing a copy of the files to prosecutors and the defense so prosecutors could “formulate an adequate and intelligent response to, and to defend against, the motion and petition; and for the defendant to be enabled to prosecute fairly his claims.”

A Tuesday entry in the case states copies of the files had been delivered to the prosecution in person and to the defense by certified mail.

The last extension request of the deadline of the prosecutor’s office to respond to the motion and petition was until March 19. It does not appear that a new deadline for prosecutors to respond is in place yet.